Frank Warren, originally uploaded by timbu.

Last month I went to a reading Frank Warren gave at BirchBark Books in Minneapolis. He is the collector of the postcards at postsecret.blogspot.com. He had a lot of amazing and funny stories. I love the new book, although the first one is still my favorite.

While sailing I had the luxury of finishing up a few books I’ve been working on.

My favorite book of this batch was “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver The narrative style, which switches between points of view, was jarring at first, but I adapted and even looked forward to the different voices. I loved the way that the book told big stories about culture & religion, colonialism & nationalism, white & black, wealth & poverty all in the context of a dysfunctional family. I liked the authors writing style, the description of the mother’s grief has stuck in my mind.

The book made me think a lot — I am just really glad I don’t own a parrot. Thanks for lending me the book, Brooke.

Next book was “That Old Ace in the Hole” by Annie Proulx. I liked the descriptions of people and places in the book, but found the story a little weak. I liked “The Shipping News” much better, although both books had a fantastic sense of the characters that inhabit a place. There were a few passages in the book, usually droll descriptions of characters that made me laugh out loud. In the end I liked the tiny stories that the characters told – more than the actual story told by the author. I’ll read other books by Proulx — this isn’t my favorite.

It’s been a good week for finishing books.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by loca author Kate Dicamillo, Bagram Ibatoulline(illus)

It’s preachy, sweet and sentimental bordering on maudlin — it won’t surprise you that I really liked it. My signed copy was purchased at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, which is the best place to buy kids books. I liked the moral of the story and the illustrations were perfect. I know too many people like Edward the china rabbit, who are either too wrapped up in their own ego or too afraid of loss to really engage in passionate and unrestrained love. I’m glad I have kids so I can read sentimental children’s book and not have people think I’m totally off my rocker.

Tampa Burn by Randy Wayne White

This is a one of a couple of books set in Florida that I picked up for my Mickey Mouse vacation last February. It’s a classic guy thriller story. White’s “Doc Ford” reminds me of the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler but a little more salacious. If you are looking for challenging intellectual stimulation, this isn’t it. If you are looking for mindless entertainment with plenty of testosterone, you’re in the right place.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

OK, this one is kind of girly – it’s not a romance novel or anything — the book is just more about relationships than guns. I read a review last year of a recent novel by Anne Tyler and thought the author sounded interesting. Despite the fact that there were almost no likeable characters in this book and nothing much happened in the book, I still enjoyed reading it. Tales of family dysfunction are the kind of horror story I like. If you are looking for an upbeat, feel good story consider reading something else. I liked the way the author manages to tell the same stories from multiple vantage points.

Invisible Man by Ralph Elison

O.K., I’m still not done with this one. I’ll let you know.

I finished another Dan Brown novel, “Angels & Demons”. For the second time I can’t figure out what the fuss is about.

The story is slow and the “puzzles” are simplistic.

Maybe I would have liked this book better when I was in my “OMG, John Grisham is the best author ever” period.

I picked the book since people I know consider it to be the better book when compared to “The Da Vinci Code”. I didn’t like “Da Vinci Code” I should have guessed that “Angels & Demons” would be annoying in exactly the same way.

I like stories that involve conspiracy. I like stories that discuss art & religion and history. I like stories that re-invent the classic stories of world religions. I still didn’t like this story.

More than being annoyed by the book, I am annoyed by people who have their underwear in a wad, wanting to either prove or disprove the theories offered in this book or “The Da Vinci Code.”

Now for an ironic twist. I occasionally spend the weekends with a real life conspiracy crank who thinks the illuminati, the catholics, and gubmint are behind everything. The conversations with said crank seem suspiciously like the plot of this book and they annoy the crap out of me. So why in the H-E-double-toothpicks would I choose to read not one but two novels huge novels that take that same conspiracy crapola and repackage it as a thin plotline?

Above all, since I would like to write a really successful novel, I’m especially annoyed that these books are so popular — and my blog isn’t.

I have quite a few paper back books I’ve bought over the years. I need to get rid of some of them since I don’t have nearly enough shelf space to house them. In addition, there are plenty of books I own that I just don’t feel the need to read again. I’m only too happy to get them into the hands of someone who will enjoy them.

I’ve tried paperback exchange stores in the past. They seem to work on a store credit scheme, where I get a percentage of the cover price applied towards the next book I buy. That’s reasonable but the one in my neighborhood doesn’t have the best selection and is open very odd hours. In the end, it seemed like the book ended up being worth exactly 1/2 of a different used book. In my mind one used book (in reasonable condition) is worth one used book, although I’m willing to pay a small transaction fee.

I once tried to sell a few items on Amazon, but I was competing with people selling 49¢ copies. It was hardly worth the bother.

So I mentioned this to my scrabble playing & prolific reader pal, Jennie. She looked around, rejected one site and came back with a solid recommendation for paperbackbookswap.com. I figured I’ve got nothing to lose, I’ll try it. Within 12 hours someone is shipping me two books, “Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass” by Isak Dinesen & “Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown. Coincidentally two people want books that I listed, so I’ll be shipping those out tomorrow. They even give you a label to print out so that it’s super easy to ship.

So what does this cost? Each person involved pays their own shipping, which is about $1.59. The web site indicates that they want to start charging a membership fee in the future to be part of the exchange, but right now it doesn’t cost anything. Every book you send allows you to get one book. In addition when you sign up listing 9 books gives you three credits right away.

If you join and list 9 books, I get a credit. So join up and try it. List me or better yet, Jennie, as having referred you.

The Tiger Rising

by Kate Dicamillo

I read ‘The Tiger Rising’, by Kate DiCamillo a few months back. If you liked the novel, “Because of Winn-Dixie”, you’ll probably like this book. It is a children’s book that deals with topics like bullying, death, and grief without succumbing to cliche, preciousness or preachiness.

The book I am currently reading, which I find myself thinking about the most, is a collection of poems entitled “Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God”, by Ranier Maria Rilke. The poems were originally written in German and translated, loosely in some cases by Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy. Some of the poems are completely haunting. Case in point, this one where the writer wonders how God will react to the writers death.

What will you do, God, when I die?
I am your pitcher (when I shatter?)
I am your drink (when I go bitter?)
I, your garment; I, your craft.
Without me what reason have you?

Poetry never translates perfectly — you can’t get meter and rhyme and alliteration to all translate while saving the imagery for a culture who may have no frame of reference. I was really pleasantly surprised when the translators had a somewhat detailed forward where they explain their methologies and the choices they made in order to complete this translation. I wish that more translated books would feature this kind of explanatory material.

I realize reading translations of German poets who write about God is kind of an obscure thing to do for pleasure. It was an unexpected surprise to see that Jan, just yesterday, posted another poem by Rilke from the same collection of verse. Odd … I promise I didn’t pawn my book off on her, beg her to read and it and then browbeat her into discussing it. (I’m sure there are people who will read this, who have had me do that )

I love a good book review, especially one that skewers the writer. If you haven’t read the Garrison Keillor’s review of ‘American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,’ by Bernard-Henri Lévy you really should check it out.

Reviews this scathing remind me of the day I asked someone “… is there some sort of internet archive of cliche?” — “Yeah, Tim I thought that’s what your blog was.”

I’ve been known to read in public. At times I’ve covered my books with a plain black book cover so as to annoy strangers who wanted to know what I was reading. Now I discovered there is an even better approach; namely fake book jackets with funny titles. My favorites fake book covers are “How to Murder a Complete Stranger and Get Away With It”, “Fast Track to Prison – Exploring the Many Benefits of Life Behind Bars” and of course the salacious “How to Overcome Nymphomania”. I’m going to have to make one of these for myself.

[Link courtesy of Daily Candy]

P.S. I only knew about Daily Candy thanks to Amy, who forwarded me the “Valentiny Tim” thing that Joel posted about. Joel didn’t give you credit either.

Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith

by Anne Lamott

I kept running into people had had read “Traveling Mercies” by Anne Lamont, so while making an Amazon Christmas order for others I snuck in the book for myself.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s a loose collection of personal essays sprinkled with both humour and sadness, revolving around her personal faith. It’s not what I would call a traditional approach to faith and it’s not, how shall I say it, “the Fox News approach to faith^TM“.

My favorite quote from the book is this one.

That quote sums up the last year very nicely.

I loved Lamott’s complete unapologetic honesty and her way of describing herself.