Read Books Good for Brains

I keep talking about TV and movies on here, but books is better. I'm sorry. It's just that I usually read on the train and at work and watch movies at home so I am thinking of them when I post.

Books I read last week:

I finished Post Captain the second in the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian. I liked it more than the first book. Maybe because I am getting more into it, maybe because O'Brian was getting more into it. I don't know. I usually don't go in for British aristocracy tramping around the countryside getting into delicate entanglements but this is good stuff.

I read Ian Fleming's Casino Royale in a total of about 3 hours. Not a great book but certainly worth reading. I enjoy that style: He walked in. She walked out. He punched her in the face. There are some serious misogyny issues taking place. The book also contains the phrase, "the sweet tang of rape." I shit you not. I couldn't make that up.

I reread Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. That's some fucked up shit right there. Remind me never to climb a mountain. I remember watching the news report on this disaster with Summer's family. Doug kept laughing and shaking his head about stupid fuckers who want to climb Everest. I don't understand why people criticized Krakauer so much. What was he supposed to do? Operating in that atmosphere is like diving at severe pressures, you can't control how your physiology will respond. It isn't like he slept while people died because he was tired. His body was dying. Anyway, a crazy read. I'd like to make the movie, but someone else is.

I am currently reading two books: one is a kirie version of the Tale of Genji. The kirie is by Miyata Masayuki and is incredible. There are so many standout cutouts that I can't go into them all here. The book is in Japanese and English. It is abridged to make room for the kirie, which sucks but is necessary. I am also rereading Trainspotting . My copy is the one with the cover that reads "The best book ever written by man or woman...deserves to sell more copies than the Bible."—Rebel, Inc. True that. The only problem with reading it is the language enters your brain and you begin to think things like "pish me keks" or "I was no goin" or "disnae." I'm feeling more Mark Renton than Sick Boy these days. Hell, for the last few months I woulda settled for Spud. This book should be assigned is high schools. On the all-time list for sure.