{"id":1623,"date":"2007-08-08T07:50:25","date_gmt":"2007-08-08T12:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-reads\/"},"modified":"2007-08-08T07:50:25","modified_gmt":"2007-08-08T12:50:25","slug":"new-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-reads","title":{"rendered":"New reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

In lieu of writing my substantive take on the idiocy of the subprime loan crisis — do ya think they were called sub<\/em>prime borrowers for a reason? — I’ll fill you in on my latest readings.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, by Design Observer<\/a> 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<\/em> short; the book’s around 250 pages).<\/p>\n

The other book was a roundabout discovery. Years ago, I tried reading London Fields<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I finished a new Mad Mix CD (I know, I know: I haven’t posted anything to that site<\/a> in a while). It included a song I stumbled across in an iTunes shuffle session: Nicola 6<\/a> by Chris Connelly<\/a>. 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Of course, maybe that’s because its narrator is a man who hasn’t been able to start his novel in 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “New reads”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-qb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1847,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hero-with-a-thousand-typefaces","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":0},"title":"Hero with a Thousand Typefaces","author":"Gil","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A book that didn't make my \"best\/worst\/weirdest\" list from 2007 was Michael Bierut's 79 Short Essays on Design. I adored it but couldn't come up with a decent joke award for it. Looking back, I should've gone with \"Most fonts used in a good cause,\" since every essay is set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568986998","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3331,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/note-hideous-gridded-paper","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":1},"title":"Note hideous gridded paper","author":"Gil","date":"January 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I was going to put this Michael Bierut post among the week's Unrequired Reading, but I thought it deserved its own entry. It's all about the notebooks that Bierut has used for the past 26 years. He's up to #85. As anyone who knows me can imagine, I find this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1647,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-31-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 31, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"August 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some not-necessarily-Labor Day-themed links, dear readers! Enjoy! I had a very different image in mind when Wired said this video game owed a debt to Ayn Rand. * * * Speaking of retro-futurosity. . . * * * Here's an article about returning to the gold standard, posted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568986998","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1691,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/great-now-im-afraid-to-die","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":3},"title":"Great. Now I’m afraid to die","author":"Gil","date":"October 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Bierut shows us how to eulogize someone who was batshit-crazy.","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2457,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-91508","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 9\/15\/08","author":"Gil","date":"September 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: The Long Goodbye, which I haven't read since 1992. I gotta read more of Chandler's stuff. For some reason, 9 of his novels are available for the Kindle. So . . . any suggestions? (Also, The Last Musketeer, by Jason, and still with Montaigne's essays. . .)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FC1J58","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1672,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sep-21-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1623,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Sep. 21, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"To my Jewish readers: have an easy fast. To my non-Jewish readers: be fast and easy. On with the show! Just for Tina: Australian architecture and ugliness. * * * Um, I was just gonna go with Wite-Out. * * * Michael Bierut (go buy his book) looks back at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568986998","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}