Dangerous Dan’s

Dangerous Dan’s Diner is a scary-looking joint at the corner of Broadview and Queen that serves ridiculously huge portions of grease. I met friends there for dinner and over the course of two hours we shared the place with a bedazzled family celebrating a birthday, four scrawny teenagers who ordered Coronary Burger Specials, some dude who kept taking his shoes off (ick) and a 50 year old guy with thinning hair cemented into perfect formation who wore far too much gold. 

Both friends love to read and we spent a lot of time talking about books. We also talked about the strippers lounging outside Jilly’s and the upcoming film festival, but most of the conversation was of a more academic nature. 

One of the things that came up was that blogging has prompted me to pay closer attention to what I read. As I tend to read before bed, if a book hasn’t completely captured me I’m likely to absently skim several pages before admitting that I’m half asleep. The process of sitting down and trying to write something coherent in hopes of someone sharing their opinion has meant that I’m much more alert and sometimes make notes. Now, a lot of those notes haven’t made it to Spineless but that’s because when I sit down at the computer I’m less impressed with the thought than I was the night before.  

Think it’s part of working out the kinks. Would love to know how long it takes to really hit some sort of stride.

The Closed Circle

 

I finished The Closed Circle shortly after getting back from holidays but the thought of sitting at a computer after 6 p.m. to write about it set off waves of uncontrollable twitching and sneezing.

We had dinner with good friends on Saturday night and one was kind enough to ask when I planned to post again … I took that as a gentle nudge that I shouldn’t pester people to read Spineless and then ignore it for over a week. My soon to be sister-in-law helped alleviate my guilt by shouting from the kitchen something along the lines of: “What blog? You have a blog? What do you write about …?”

Sorry, you couldn’t see it but I was having a moment …

For me, the strength of The Rotters’ Club was the wonderfully written shift from the indistinguishable gang of teenagers we meet in 1973 to strong individual characters shaped by personal and political events. The Closed Circle picks up Benjamin, Claire, Philip, Doug and Sean’s story 20 years later.

I liked The Close Circle because of the way it moves back and froth through time while offering new information and filling in holes from The Rotters’ Club. Much like Saturday, The Closed Circle uses the conflict in the Middle East as a way of exploring personalities and political views. It worked for me here because the characters reflect the varied and strong opinions people have about the war. Saturday just felt passive-aggressive.

There’s much more to the novel, but last night’s celebrations have left me a bit foggy and now that the Emmy’s are over, I really want to crawl into bed.

Will try and stay awake long enough to start one of the stories in my new Virginia Woolf collection. I really shouldn’t try and read her stuff when drowsy … that’s probably why I never finished Mrs Dalloway. It’s just that it’s too big to cart around and I’ll end up picking up something slimmer for the work commute. Speaking of, I had a yellow sticky stuck to the inside of my wallet with all the books I want to read but that’s gone and I’ve been so preoccupied that I’m having a hard time recreating it … think I’ll have to spend some time this week reading book blogs and trying to get back into the loop …

Amy

Book cover bogey

As soon as I walked into Book City yesterday I zeroed in on a collection of Virginia Woolf stories that I had to buy … partly because it was on sale for under $10, and partly because my aunt Sue, who’s starting her Masters in September, plans to study Virginia Woolf and how physics fits into her work. She explained her thesis to me last time she was in town (slowly and more than once, if I remember correctly), but I’m still at a bit of a loss when trying to articulate exactly what she’s studying. 

I figured with the new book, I’ll have at least attempted Mrs. Dalloway when I see her next and will be able to throw out random statements like: “I found that Woolf’s stream of consciousness style really helped explain the law of relatively.” Having never taken physics (BA history, thank you very much), I’m not really sure where to go with that …  

Anyway, also picked up the new Jonathan Coe novel, The Closed Circle, because I enjoyed The Rotter’s Club and thought I’d give it a go. Almost put the book back on the shelf because it drives me crazy when there’s no story outline on the back cover or inside flap. With most novels priced in the $20 range, publishers are asking readers to take huge leaps of faith when they plaster the book with endorsements but no summary. Personally, I couldn’t give two hoots if The Guardian loved the book, I’d like to know what it’s about before leaving the store.  

Flipped through to the author’s note and saw that it’s a continuation of The Rotter’s Club. Okay, thank you. Now, I’ll buy it.

Perfume

Have been completely negligent about posting. Trying to get everything done before I go on holidays next week and just haven’t had a chance to sit down and read.

Hoping to get caught up while we’re in Ottawa for a couple of days … and I have three days on a dock planned for next weekend. If I’m not completely consumed by the pile of trash magazines sure to make an appearance, I’m hoping to really get into The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

I had dinner with a friend this evening who mentioned that’s reading Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which I’m going to ask to borrow when she’s done.

Lamb finished with more of a whimper than I’d originally hoped for … not enough there for a formal novel and think the author could have pushed the humour by introducing each new character through a series of short stories or “gospels” … I’m all over short stories at the moment … there could still be overlap, but the story needed to be sharper to maintain the momentum generated in the first 100 pages.

Amy

Oh, those funny lambs

Am thoroughly enjoying Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.   

Since starting the book, I’ve found myself eavesdropping on strangers talking about god in public spaces. The first time it happened I really tried to avoid listening because guys in suits with name tags freak me out, but the conversation had a bizarre guerilla theatre feel to it and I’m still not sure whether it was staged. There’s just something odd about two guys, both in suits … one a Jehovah’s Witness and the other a scientologist, literally rapping back-and-forth about their faith and its strength on a streetcar. What I took away from it was that the scientologist dude doesn’t think L. Ron Hubbard’s “knew god” but apparently he was a really “awesome researcher.” Whatever that means… 

Last night I met friends at a pub for dinner and we couldn’t figure out what was going on at the table next to us. At first, we thought it was some sort of awkward singles event, but attendee ages ranged from 20 to 65 years and no one looked like they’d dressed for a date. About half way through our meal, a gentleman in a rugby shirt stood up and started talking about John the Baptist … and then everyone stood up, said a little prayer, hugged each other, and left.  

The John the Baptist portrayed in Lamb is wholly different from the one buddy talked about in the bar … he seemed less concerned about ridding Jerusalem of “sluts” and more focused on spreading a traditional gospel.  

I am glad that Biff and Joshua (aka Jesus) are finally starting the ministry. Both spend years searching for the three wise men who attended Josh’s birth. It’s interesting as
Moore points out how similar the teachings are to eastern philosophy, but really … it slows the momentum of the book and the humour starts to drag. 

Not sure what’s next on the agenda … been busy and haven’t been reading as much … may spend some time over the long weekend checking out my local bookstore. 

Have a lovely weekend …

Cinematic Cliches

Meant to post this last Friday … Lazy afternoon reading … 25 Cinematic Cliches.