I rarely choose to read a book on account of a review in the papers. Of course sometimes (rarely) I’m reminded by a review that a book has come out. But in those case I have already decided I was going to read it – or not. There are other recommendation sources.

Last week I read E. L. Doctorow’s Book of Daniel (1971) because of a nice little essay in the Review-section of The Guardian. I was impressed.

Last year I read Jonathan Raban’s Surveillance after reading a review in The Guardian which made me curious.

No, this is not an entry on ‘recommendation systems’ (friends, blogs, other books, literary history, social networks, Amazon).

No, this is not an entry on the dire state of reviewing (in the newspapers).

I just thought there are 3 types of (good) novels (not counting the bad ones) after realizing that I did not have the desire to re-read The Book of Daniel however impressed I was.

1. novels that you read with pleasure; and as long as you read, you feel that your time is well spent. But after finishing such a novel, you forget about it.

2. novels that you read with pleasure, feeling very impressed. After finishing you will talk about such a novel to others, and you will remember something of it actively for a long time. Yet you do feel that you will never feel inclined to re-read it.

3. novels that after finishing leave you desiring to re-read them. Because you know there is so much more to discover.

Surveillance for me is category 1.
The Book of Daniel is category 2.
The Recognitions (William Gaddis) is category 3.

Then there is category 4. That’s Finnegans Wake. Books you would like to read for ever.

BTW The Book of Daniel is concerned with the history of Leftism in the United States, bridging the Rosenberg-case (and thus socialism/communism) with the Sixties protest movement through a fictional son & daughter of the Isaacsons (= Rosenbergs). Interestingly, the real children of the Rosenbergs did not seem suffer at all from all the psychological ‘damage’ that characterizes the protagonists of Doctorows novel. (See for this Garber & Walkowitz Secret Agents).

Recent reading matter, that left me impressed…

Konrad Bayer: Het hoofd van Vitus Bering. (Another plug for what is the best Dutch publisher for translated literature: http://www.uitgeverij-ijzer.nl/).

David Markson: Going Down. (Pure “modernist” novel by one of the masters of contemporary “innovative” literature, from 1970, republished in 2005).

William T. Vollmann: Riding Toward Everywhere. (His latest, about hopping freight trains; in fact a treatise about freedom).

My first German-language publication will soon be available. It’s a text on locative art and the work of Esther Polak in McLuhan Neu Lesen edited by Martina Leeker, Kerstin Schmidt and Derrick de Kerckhove: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts762/ts762.htm.

One of the reasons for not blogging too much is that I’ve been working on Sonic Acts XII The Cinematic Experience. The festival takes place from 21 – 24 February. Most of my time went into editing the book. Yesterday the book was delivered at the Sonic Acts office – I have not even seen it myself (will pick up a copy later today).

The book will be available during the festival, and can also already be ordered online at: http://www.sim-central.nl/detail.php?id=5757.

More info on the book and the festival at the Sonic Acts XII site: http://www.sonicacts.com/.

Two books I’ve read over the past few weeks I’d like to mention here:

J.G. Ballard: Miracles of Life, his autobiography, very concise, clear, and as I did not know too much about his background (not having read much on Ballard), very illuminating. He writes about his life – not his work. He does not interpret his own texts, nor does he take issue with criticisms. Yet exactly because of that it is illuminating. It gives background, it explains a life and a way of living.

Samuel R. Delany: About Writing. Without doubt the best book on writing that I’ve ever read. That is: the best book on writing fiction, and on writing as a craft. It’s a bunch of essays, a lot of tips and five interviews (only those are sometimes a bit long-winded), all informed by Delany’s wide experience as a writer and as a teacher of writing. I’d say: required reading on any ‘creative’ writing course. (And even when Delany’s might be wrong, or when you’d disagree with him, the disagreement will get you somewhere: further). Especially recommended for anyone who loves to blog and knows how important a good sentence is ;-)

Is the ‘quality’ of what you are doing reflected in the sites that Google sends you to, acting on your queries?

http://1010.co.uk/index.html
http://www.lfmc.org/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/index.html

“Uit die vertaaloefeningen heb ik lering getrokken: dat een leeservaring begint met het overwinnen van irritatie.” p. 16

“Literaire ervaring kwam niet alleen tot stand door het inzetten van je verbeeldingswereld, je fantasie, je dagdromen, maar ook door het lichaam, door het voelen van je ademhalingsritme, als je een tekst hardop las; of tactiel, door de schaatsbewegingen van je hand als je een tekst overschreef.” p. 16

“Eigenlijk zijn de schrijvers van mijn voorkeur allemaal vertalers. Hun boeken behoren tot de categorie die Calvino nog niet heeft genoemd: de boeken die je leest omdat je ze zou willen vertalen, om ze te begrijpen in wat je niet begrijpt van je eigen taal.” p. 75

Uit: Anthony Mertens, Lezen, man! Essays en kritieken, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 2006.

Such a pleasure to come across a good homepage. Here’s Douglas Kahn’s: http://www.douglaskahn.com. He is of course, the author of Noise, Water, Meat, probably one of the best books on sound in the arts.

He’s also editor now of an academic magazine on Sensory Studies: The Senses and Society, behind the academic firewall, but the first issue is available for free: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/tsas/numberandsomesessioninfo.

Haven’t read any of this yet, but I’ve collected the links:

The American NEA has published a study on reading: http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html.

Critiques from Matthew Kirschenbaum: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=fgprwfnh32l7d3thj18vh3jz79k9f6fw

And discussion on if:book: http://www.futureofthebook.org/archives/2007/11/the_neas_misreading_of_reading.html.

All this via Jill Walker: http://jilltxt.net/?p=2184.

Aankondiging:

Een vrolijke avond met Onno Kosters, Han van der Vegt, Arnoud van Adrichem, Joost Zwagerman, Fabian Stolk en Arie Altena

Waar: in Perdu, Kloveniersburgwal 86, 1012 CZ Amsterdam, 020 4220542
Hoe laat: 20.30 uur. Zaal open: 20.00 uur.
Datum: woensdag 21 november

We beleven opnieuw een bloeitijd in de Nederlandse epische poëzie. Er worden weer meeslepende verhalen verteld in een dichtvorm die zich uitstekend leent voor voordracht en commentaar. Vandaar deze avond, die door literair-cultureel tijdschrift De Gids wordt georganiseerd ter viering van het verschijnen van haar themanummer met en over epische gedichten.

Poëzie:
Onno Kosters leest Lonely Planet, een hellevaart op een soms ondraaglijk lichte toon.
Han van der Vegt draagt een halfuur voor uit zijn in Homerische versmaat geschreven, meeslepende epos De Paladijnen, dat integraal en verticaal is afgedrukt in De Gids.
Arnoud van Adrichem komt met een aantal gedichtencycli uit zijn debuutbundel Vis.

Commentaar:
Joost Zwagerman licht wat achtergronden toe bij Roeshoofd Hemelt, zijn eerste proeve van epiek.
Fabian Stolk legt uit waarom nu juist de epiek het zo goed doet in de Nederlandse poëzie.
Arie Altena plaatst de epische poëzie in het tijdperk van internet en andere communicatienetwerken.

U wordt door de avond geleid door Dirk van Weelden en Arjen Mulder, beide redacteuren van De Gids.

Het nummer van De Gids is inmiddels uit, en te koop “bij de betere boekhandel”.