short thoughts on books I've read somewhat recently

the raw shark texts this book has a viral youtube marketting campaign. it's sort of a borges-cum-calvino with a dash of murakami book, but then he quotes both of them before two different sections, which is lame. there's a bad entity creaure man thing named Mycroft Ward that's into assimilating, and with my thoughts on Microsoft Word and shrinking language, and how strong language is a concrete thingy in the book makes me smiley. Also, the book has ascii art, and an ascii shark flip book section. and they make some sort of brian eno tape loop thing that's like a pent-o-gram of safety like from that Ghoulies movie. Lot's of cute science based on logic and not tech, and a lot of tech based on logic and not science. Enough cultural allusions to be annoying. viral youtube account, featuring lightbulbs and sharks

soon i will be invincible parody of super heroes and villians from alternating chapters from one Dr. Impossible (villian) and a new hero cyborg lady named Fatal ("Fuh. Tell. I should have chosen Cybergirl. It was on the list.") The parody is light, it really reads for the most part like any post modern comic, cept there's not pictures. So, it's still enjoyable and funny at points. The batman, hero with no powers, character is autistic, which I like. They touch on time travel and alien invasions, so it's full blown, which is also nice. There's also a 100 year old retired villian named Baron Ether who lives in New Haven, CT, which is like, right where I grew up. So cool. Author is a videogame consultant.

god jr. Dennis Cooper, the author, I've been told, usually writes about highly horrible gay punk action, with Venice beach runaways being fisted and murdered and then being discussed by a group of men who pick up said Venice beach runaways, who do fuck them, but don't murder them. I haven't read those books. This book is a short with a big font about a man who lost his son in a car accident. he also lost the use of his legs. Kinda. He's building a monument to his son, based on a drawing. Then he plays some GameCube for about 40% of the book, a faux Banjo Kazooie.......

......where his son spent a lot of time. But those last few sentences don't really sum it up at all. Its a tiny book about things beyond gried but still framed in rationale. It made me really sad. It also reminded me of Alpha Dog and why I dislike LA so much. And pot. Nintendo is still ok.

longitude 'popular account' of the guy who made the first chronometer that helped sailors navigate the seas and avoid pirates. some crazy shit, like what scurvy does after all your teath fall out. (your brain explodes.) also, an attempt to solve the longitude problem by wounding dogs and intellictual turf warfare with the clock tinkerers taking on the astronomers. also lots of archaic tech. i think there's a bbc miniseries about this with michael gambon.

then we came to the end this book is the 2nd person plural. its all We this and We that. And not the royal We. Its there for a purpose that accepts that shit crown at the last paragraph, but its still a pretty funny book about an office where everyone is getting laid off slowly, while the only work they have is an impossible pro bono case about making breast cancer funny. Increadibly nether clawings to 9/11 that are so faint, because, if they are there, they stand on quagmire. The one from hound of the baskervilles. the grimpen mire. That thing ate a horse. Great flashback when a co-workers daughter is kidnapped and they make a missing poster for her, and photoshop all the not-so-nice from the kidnappie. not so weird depature chapter in the middle that is revealed in the end. eh.

books by david mitchell
cloud atlas fucking brilliant. let's chase the modern human condition in a boutique of great language accross the horizon of time, and then trace it back. 6 stories, all tied to each other by their own narrative, interrupted in mid clause to pick it up on the end. missionary diaries, bisexual composers letters, movies, holograms, oral communication and collapsed down on itself on the way out. period peices smashed on omega level sci-fi capitalism, and all critqued by the next generation or ten. should have won the man booker thing prize.
black swan green wonder years in england with thatcher and the falklands. eh. gave it to my mom.
number9dreamhis second book. i didn't like it despite being set in tokyo with idiosynchric genre remixs. didn't finish it. rare for me.
ghostwritten his first book. very good. cloudatlas journey but bleak. follow a japanese cultist to a misplaced phonecall to runaway lovers to korea who ask an english man for the time who is embezzeling who in turn.... etc. There's a non corpral body and a radio dj who talks to a satelite. man made.

books not written by david mitchell

the keep i gave this book to sam. I liked it. I hope he read it.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics Good read. Its a mystery novel, but you don't know it, ever. Oh fuck I just said it. I guess its going to be a movie and people think the author is attractive. was listed as a top ten book in NYT book review for 06 and didn't sound boring. Its was ok, I guess.

Against The Day Is Pynchon parodying himself? Probably not. Still pretty great.