New reads

In lieu of writing my substantive take on the idiocy of the subprime loan crisis — do ya think they were called subprime borrowers for a reason? — I’ll fill you in on my latest readings.

I began reading two books yesterday, and am enjoying both of them immensely. Around 3am Tuesday morning, I gave up on trying to get back to sleep, and headed downstairs to my library, where I picked up one of last week’s purchases, 79 Short Essays About Design, by Design Observer writer Michael Bierut. Even adjusting for middle-of-the-night delirium, I was entranced by the first few essays. Bierut has an easy style that manages not to understate the importance of his central topic. At their best, they have a “look behind the curtain” approach to history that I so enjoy from some of Ron Rosenbaum’s columns. The first 4 or 5 essays have helped establish what he sees as central schools of thought when it comes to teaching design, and how these philosophies play out in the real world. I’ll try to write a little more about them when I finish all 79 (and they are short; the book’s around 250 pages).

The other book was a roundabout discovery. Years ago, I tried reading London Fields by Martin Amis and I seem to recall that I found myself bored silly within a couple of pages. This is probably during one of those phases when I was denouncing just about all contemporary fiction.

A few weeks ago, I finished a new Mad Mix CD (I know, I know: I haven’t posted anything to that site in a while). It included a song I stumbled across in an iTunes shuffle session: Nicola 6 by Chris Connelly. I loved the Kinks / early Bowie sound to it, and tried to figure out a place for it on the new CD. The recipient of said CD, my buddy Mark, wrote, “The chorus in one of those songs involves ‘Nicola Six.’ Isn’t she a character in a Martin Amis novel?” I looked it up and, lo and behold, Nicola Six is one of the lead characters in London Fields.

“Well,” I thought, “it certainly was a long time ago and I’ve been awfully wrong about a lot of things.” So I checked with my local library online, picked up the book on the way home. I read 50 pages of it last night before turning in, and found that, yes, I was awfully wrong. I can’t say anything about Amis’ other books, but this one’s keeping me interested and engaged.

Of course, maybe that’s because its narrator is a man who hasn’t been able to start his novel in 20 years.