'I FALL upon the spines of books! I read!' -- Autumn 2014: What Are You Reading?

Origins of The New South: more CVW enlightenment re my neck of the woods

And what came back out of it

Started Argonauts of the Western Pacific. I also found an interesting book of Malinowski's photography in this period, which I'm gonna read concurrently.

T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone - Absolutely loving this, savoring a chapter every few days. T.H. White just seems like he would have been the coolest grandpa.

Jeff Vanermeer, Annihilation - Had my expectations up but the prose is often awkward and characterizations kind of laughable. Its hard to sell me on the believability of this strange "other" world when you can't establish "normal" human nature convincingly. Like the setting seems cool but the narration just keeps taking me out of it. Roadside Picnic handled this "weird zone that needs to be explored" scenario much better.
But I'll probably still buy the sequels to see how it all turns out...

I finished Armies of the Night and I am glad to say that Mailer did redeem his very wobbly start by the time the book ends.

I will remark that, although it is apparent by the end why Mailer chose to make this book is so Mailer-intensive, I would still rate this book as highly flawed. The meat of the book is contained in maybe 40 of the 300 pages and he only pulls this mess together loosely, by virtue of some low-grade intellectual tap dancing. Still, it was worth reading all 300 to get at those 40 and the book is a valuable period piece.

The third volume explains why twee love is best: that is when boys and girls are more or less equal and can still get along doing things like skipping rope or playing long lost wanderer returns to island home. After that, they grow apart and perhaps are not reunited until old age. This assumes best means compatible and sympathetic, but if you want tension, look to middle age.

I have now started Speedboat. I started State of Grace last year but did not finish. I read Dept. of Speculation last year and gave it to my sister.

The timing of the end of the Book of Strange New Things was perfect -- before the descent, in time to see the Manhattan skyline.

It definitely seems like it's time to spawn the next WAYR thread, now that January is here. I'll see what I can do about a clever title, but I am not feeling particularly clever atm.

To quote a famous rabbi: "It is done."