ARTIST PICKS 2 | LIT MOB

WILL KNAUER
of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

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TWILIGHT
by Stephenie Meyer

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GRANDFATHER TWILIGHT
by Barbara Helen Berger

DANTE’S INFERNO
by Dante Alighieri

THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
by Jim Carroll

I’m about to start reading the Twilight Series, the popular books about monsters that my sister got really into (she is smart and has good taste). We went to get the new one at the bookstore but they only had the hard cover, so we bought it. We think they are waiting to release the paperback after everyone buys the hard cover. And we got some dark chocolate in the checkout line.

Favorite Three Books:

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. It makes me wonder if my life may have been like that if I had continued living in NYC, though it’s pretty obvious it wouldn’t have been. I think I moved to Missouri at the age he started writing in his journals. Plus, I’ve always liked to keep journals.

Another all time fave is Dante’s Inferno. I love the format it’s written in, and the images it creates are really like no other book. I’ve always had an interest in hell, and to hear it in almost beautiful, poem-like fashion is genius.

My last favorite is Grandfather Twilight. It’s a children’s book about an old man with a long white beard and a wolf dog who goes to a chest every night and picks out a pearl. Then he takes his nightly walk and, with every step he takes, the pearl grows bigger, until finally he reaches his destination and then he lets it go and it floats up and becomes the moon. The colors are totally awesome.

GABE LEVINE
of Takka Takka

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THE REST IS NOISE
by Alex Ross

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
by Phillip K. Dick

WHAT IT TAKES
by Richard Ben Cramer

NEUROMANCER
by William Gibson

READING NOW:
The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
I spent much of my childhood trying not to listen to classical music; now I can’t get enough of it. This book starts with the late-Romantic composers and works its way around the story of modern classical music. Right now I’m up to Schoenberg. There is a lot in there and a lot of music to listen to. I feel like Ross has written awesome liner notes for 20th century music.

Three books that I have read recently:

The Man In The High Castle by D Phillip K. Dick
A beautiful mind fuck.

What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer
Best political-campaign book ever. It’s a chronicle of the 1988 Presidential race.

Neuromancer by William Gibson
One day soon I think we will all live in a William Gibson book. This one is my favorite.

EARLIMART

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ACTUAL AIR
by David Berman

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
by Mark Haddon

COSMOS
by Carl Sagan

THE SIRENS OF TITAN
by Kurt Vonnegut

TIM HOEY
of Cut Copy

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PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE – LEGACY EDITION (LINER NOTES)
by Dennis Wilson

POST OFFICE: A NOVEL
by Charles Bukowski

DRUGS ARE NICE: A POST-PUNK MEMOIR
by Lisa Crystal Carver

A CRACK UP AT THE RACE RIOTS
by Harmony Korine

KIP PARDUE
of Remember the Titans

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YOU DON’T LOVE ME YET
by Jonathan Lethem

BLACK SWAN GREEN
by David Mitchell

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THE SUMMER HE DIDN’T DIE
by Jim Harrison

ALL THE SAD YOUNG LITERARY MEN
by Keith Gessen

I just finished Jonathan Lethem’s You Don’t Love Me Yet. I did not hate it, nor did I love it. He is too “cute” sometimes for my tastes, trying to top Chabon in the out-there metaphor game. I just started reading two books, and I am not sure which to keep on my nightstand first. Maybe you or someone over there can help. First, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. It’s his first novel, and it is getting great reviews. Second, I’ve got The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who just kicked it, and whom I know very little about, but I love some Soviet-era depression.

Three books that I have read recently and love:

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Mitchell is amazing. Four books, four home runs. Black Swan Green is a bit of a departure from the Murakaminess of his other works but just as touching and just as beautiful.

The Summer He Didn’t Die by Jim Harrison
I want to be Jim Harrison when I grow up. He’s possibly the greatest living American writer in my humble opinion (kudos to Bret Ellis, Annie Prouxl, Cormac, that Irvin guy, and Don Delillo, though). This book of novellas (an art seemingly lost to all but Harrison) is so raw and open. Feeling him switch his point of view from novella to novella is like watching ballet. It’s just gorgeous.

All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen
This kid (he is about my age, so I think I can say that) kind of nailed it. As Kunkel says on the back cover (I noticed you guys reviewed Indecision, which I kind of thought was a mess, but we can talk about that later), I see myself in it somewhere. I think many would, but especially kids of a certain age and area. Since he went to school in the northeast and was surrounded by the characters in this book, it hit rather close to home.