I haven't posted much lately. Been doing a lot of reading. Currently enjoying Joyce Johnson's The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac. Jack's Book of Dreams is my current Keroucian (Kerouawhackian?) adventure. Also working my way through The Wisdom of the Vedas by J.C. Chatterji (to help me better understand where Alan Watts, who I've been listening to extensively, is coming from). When I bought the latter at Barnes & Noble the young man checking me out said, "Good for you. This is a great book . . . ," and proceeded to school me on other good Hindu resources. Knowledgeable guy. I still think I want to work there and just be around books and book lovers all day. Ten minutes after I got hired the company would abandon brick-and-mortar stores - that's my fear anyway.
Reading Johnson's biography has me wanting to read more of what Jack read. I tried Proust and failed (yawn). Maybe Saroyan, or Wolfe, or Celine, or Spengler?
Too many books, too little time . . . .
One thing's for sure because of the latter realization: I'm not wasting my time gutting through something that doesn't hold my attention.
4 comments:
Rick -- love your book "Beat Generation Dictionary". Do you tweet?
Rick, love your book "Beat Generation Dictionary" -- one of the great resources of recent generations. Do you tweet?
I Tweet as thebeathandbook.
Reading Johnson's new biography also inspired me to read what Kerouac read. I began with Saroyan--a collection of stories--and really enjoyed it. Then moved on to Wolfe, and though it's quite a change from Saroyan and taking me a LONG time to make real progress, there's amazing prose that--when compared to Saroyan--helps bring the challenges that Kerouac faced in the development of his writing style come to life.
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