On the Partial Reading of Books

When I lived in Morgantown as graduate student, back when the Internet was young and Amazon.com was just a twinkle in Jeff Bezos' eye, I used to make regular trips to Border's Books and Music in Pittsburgh. This was the first large bookstore I had ever seen. A professor of mine had directed me there to purchase a copy of Ellington: The Early Years by Mark Tucker. I asked if I should call ahead to make sure they had a copy and he responded, "Of course they'll have it."

Growing up in Beckley, WV, it was difficult to imagine a book store that would have a copy of something I wanted to read when I wanted to read it. I was certain that if I had asked someone at Waldenbooks at the Crossroads Mall if they had a copy of Ellington: The Early Years, I would be met with a blank stare.

I still remember first walking through the front door. It was like a wonderland. Shelf after shelf of books on philosophy, religion, music, art, poetry . . . everything. There was a music store inside, too. Their world music section was about as large as my record store at home.

I spent a lot of money at that place in two years. A lot of money. (In retrospect, it seems unethical in the extreme to issue credit cards to college students, but it seemed like free money at the time.)

I bought everything you can imagine. I bought new releases with quirky titles and brushed-paper covers. I bought glossy travel guides to places I had no plans to visit. I also bought "classics."

One of the first books I bought at Border's was Ulysses by James Joyce. At the time, I knew nothing about Joyce except that he was Irish and that Ulysses was considered a classic, a major achievement in Western literature. It was massive. I bought the paperback copy, but I still think it weighed about 8 pounds.

I took home Ulysses along with a sack of other purchases and settled in to read. I picked the Joyce up first. I got about ten pages. I put in a bookmark then picked up another book.

I tried again about six months later. I think I may have gotten 20 pages that time.

Over the years, I believe I've tried to read Ulysses five times, each time inching forward a few more pages. The last time I got to about page 75 before giving up. The problem is that the damn thing is about 800 pages long.

For those of you who have not set out on the odyssey to conquer Joyce's epic novel, I will simply say that it is daunting. There is a long bit at the front about a tower. And a key, I think. And some young men arguing, but not in any sort of violent way. At one point the main character goes to use the toilet.

I feel like a true failure and a bit of a fraud, pretending to be an educated person when I am largely unfamiliar with this important literary work.

I feel like a failure until I read Nick Hornby.

Hornby, the author of High Fidelity and several other lovely works of fiction also wrote non-fiction books about books, The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping Versus The Dirt. If you are a bibliophile to any degree, I would highly recommend them. In each, Hornby chronicles his own love of books, each chapter a monthly entry in a diary recounting books he has purchased, books he has read and books he has started to read. One quickly learns that this successful author, who is widely read and British, for crying out loud, has trouble making it to the last page quite frequently.

I suffer from this disease in the worst way. At any given moment, there are four or five books I am "reading," though some have gathered dust on a shelf for months.

Here's what I'm "reading" right now.

Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament by Kay Refield Jamison. Okay, I really am reading this one right now. I'm about three-quarters through and it is sitting on the table next to me, waiting for me to quit blogging. It's excellent, by the way, and compelling for anyone in the arts and/or anyone who is familiar with manic depression.

I think I could still argue that I am reading the second volume of Peter Guralnick's Elvis biography, Careless Love. I plowed through the first volume, Last Train to Memphis and expected the number two to be just as exciting. The problem is that volume one feels like "That's Alright Mama" and volume two feels like Having Fun with Elvis on Stage. I'm sure I'll finish it: I'm about 50 pages from the finish line. Actually, the last 50 pages may be good companion reading with the Jamison book.

By the way, Guralnick's other books, especially Sweet Soul Music and Lost Highway are excellent. He is my favorite music writer and has a deep understanding of American music.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to begin reading Creativity by Mihaly Csikzentmihaly. I have given away about six copies of his seminal work Flow, which is about the science of motivation and why we should do the thing we love. I read Flow in college (I bought it at Border's) and will talk about it to anyone who will stand still for five minutes. Imagine my excitement when I learned that one of my favorite authors had written on the subject of creativity - a topic I never tire of discussing! I made it about half-way through.

The problem was that I disagree with Czikzentmihaly's framework for understanding creativity, which he introduces early on, as well as his very flawed method of studying the issue. I'll spare you the details here, but the experience left me jaded. I suppose I may finish it someday soon, since I think the issue of creativity is so very important. But I'm not going to enjoy it.

This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession is a pretty good read by Daniel Levitin, in spite of its truly horrific title. I could even say that I loved the first part of it. Somewhere about two-thirds of the way through I set it down and just haven't wanted to pick it up again. For the first several chapters, it was very affirming to me. I read page after page about why we love music - not some voodoo, but hard science. It's in our genetic code! Hurray! Science validates my love of music! That's all well and good, I suppose, but after a while I felt like Whitman listening to the learned astronomers, wanting to go outside and gaze at the silent stars.

We were assigned Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It by Kelly Gallagher as a work assignment. The premise of the the book is excellent and important, and that is that we have taken the joy of reading from students, largely by forcing them to read things they don't want to. Here's the thing: I hate being told I have to read something. So I haven't finished it. (I'll give you a moment for the irony of this anecdote to fully settle in.) I've got a single chapter left in this slim paperback, but it may never get read. Keep in mind, I went through junior and senior high school English reading every novel assigned after we had the final test on each. It's just some weird compulsion.

That leaves one final unfinished read.

Ulysses.

Maybe I'll start that one tomorrow.

Twenty Books My Twin Sister Should Read

(Written January 4, 2011)
Sarah,
You asked me for a list of books I would recommend to you that “cause [you] to view the world from a different perspective,” my “top twenty or so.” I want you to know that I have taken this responsibility very seriously. Please guard this list carefully. Possession of this list may lead to your moral decline or possibly your excommunication (I’m actually not joking on that one.) You won’t find any Elizabeth George or William P. Young here. There is nothing that ranks as pornographic literature, though some King-James Only proponents might disagree. The list is ranked according firstly to how different the perspective is from your own and secondly how enjoyable and/or informative the book is.
You may want to get a scotch, neat, to drink while you read.

1. Preacher by Garth Ennis. A “graphic novel” (i.e., comic book) that you can buy in nine paperback volumes, Preacher is about a preacher (!) who loses his faith due to being possessed by the offspring of an angel and a demon. To say that most people would consider this comic blasphemous would be an understatement. (Hint: the villain is an omnipotent deity.)
2. Hip: The History by John Leland. I recommend everyone read this book. This book chronicles the concept of hip in the conflict between West Africans and Western Europeans in America, beginning with minstrelsy and ending with trucker caps. By the way, there is another John Leland who authored some minor Calvinistic Baptist works in the 17th century. This one writes for Rolling Stone.
3. Pimp by Iceberg Slim. A memoir that teaches you the best qualities of a “bottom bitch” and why you shouldn’t have sex with your own prostitutes unless they pay you. I bet no one in your church has read this.
4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I’m reading this now. Violent and Pelagian. The book ends more upbeat than the movie.
5. A Confederacy of Dunces by Jonathan Kennedy O’Toole. Set in the French Quarter, so you know I love it. The protagonist is a fat medievalist who lives with his mom and has a faulty pyloric valve. A really good way to learn how weird New Orleans is.
6. Watchmen by Alan Moore. Another comic, this one the great American novel, written by an Englishman. This one flips the concept of heroes on its head, with the good guys committing rape and genocide. I like the ending of the movie better (Craig Calcaterra will probably bash me for that) but the book is great.
7. The Biography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. Yes, the guy who wrote Roots. Malcolm Little starts out as a hustler in Harlem, then converts to Nation of Islam, then finally to traditional Islam. Another one that’s probably not on your church’s book table.
8. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Have you read this? Christians hate it because it uses the word “g**d**” (and yes, it’s spelled with just six letters). (Btw – I edited that to spare your church friends on your FB. I’m that gracious.) You have to read it just because it gets banned so much. Just don’t kill Paul or Ringo.
9. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. What’s scarier than vampires? Child vampires – that are Swedish!! This book is great. It’s really about how awful it is to be an adolescent. Just make sure you get the English translation. Unless you speak Swedish.
10. Seymour: An Introduction/Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters by J.D. Salinger. Another Glass family book (actually two in one).  Family dysfunction that is witty and dark.
11. Miles: An Autobiography by Miles Davis. The first page has the sentence, “Ella Fitzgerald was a m*****f*****.” Do you really need another reason to read this?
12. Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan. This guy has had a really interesting life. When he gets bored with who he is, he just decides he’s someone else. Non-chronological, which is nice.
13. Post Office by Charles Bukowski. The opposite of the Puritan work ethic.
14. Catalog of Cool by Gene Sculatti. Really a catalog. Find out why Hostess cupcakes are cooler than Twinkies.
15. The Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston. A five-book series. A cross between a horror novel and a noir crime thriller. The coolest vampire.
16. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Losers who are obsessed with records. And making lists. Nothing like your twin brother. (The movie is great, too, if you haven’t seen it, though it’s set in Chicago.)
17. A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans. Set in a fictional Virginia town that closely resembles Lexington, this book is just frightening. Childhood demon possession.
18. Cash: The Autobiography of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash. I love this book because it says stuff like (paraphrasing from memory), “I’ve been touring for forty years and the only thing that has changed is that forty years ago they didn’t have extra crispy.” And he loves every American president.
19. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. My favorite noir. I love Chandler’s prose. A sample: "He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway."
20. Songbook by Nick Hornby. Nonfiction. I read this in one setting. Basically a list of songs and why he likes them.

Credo

This was originally written in September of 2010.  I have revised it several times.

1. All of us are on a continuum, a “journey,” and our understanding should evolve as we go.  Although it is a cliché, I realize at this point in my life that I know a lot less than I thought I did, so everything on this list is subject to change.  As Notorious B.I.G. may have said, “A motherfucker’s a work in progress.” 

2. An idea is the most powerful thing in the world.  Consider Plato, Paul, Copernicus, Martin Luther, or Ornette Coleman.

3. New ideas are threatening to those in power.  Consider Socrates, Jesus, Galileo, Martin Luther King, or Shostakovich.

4. Almost all American music has its roots in the South.  Even Motown.

5. Colleges are great places because there are big libraries and free concerts, plays, exhibits and lectures.  The problem is that no one goes to any of those things.  As Frank Zappa wrote, “If you want to get laid, go to college.  If you want an education, go to the library.”

6. New Orleans is the most interesting city in the United States, probably the world. 

7. Politics are important. Art is more important.

8. Demand more art.  Demand it from our political, social, and cultural institutions, but demand it most of all from yourself.

9. Music is better than just about anything else.  Art, the theatre, dance and books are tied for second.

10. It is much easier to love someone when you hear their story, and it is nearly impossible to hate someone when you eat with them.  

11. Travel makes people better.  

12. If you’re not trying to make life better, more comfortable, or hipper, you’re wasting your time.  In the words of Hugh MacLeod, “Change the world or go home.”

13. Eat and drink whatever you please, whenever it pleases you. The only people who are impressed by what you eat or drink are the types of people who are impressed by what others eat and drink.

14. The idea that wisdom comes with age is bullshit.  Death comes with age.  There are lots of old fools walking around.

15. If no one thinks you’re hip, you probably aren’t.  If everyone thinks you’re hip, you definitely aren’t.

16. Small talk is for people who have nothing worth saying.  Most conversations should broach religion, politics, education, or art.

17. If no one has ever threatened to hurt you for something you’ve said, you probably haven’t said much worth hearing.

18. Human beings are inherently artistic and the urge to create cannot be suppressed by your despotic religion, political party, school or family.  Some people think this is the image of the Divine in us, while some believe it is an evolutionary impulse – but either way, it is there.

19. There is real evil in this world.  Anyone who says otherwise is either deluded or lying.  There is a reason we have nightmares from the time we are babies.  Most of us carry it around with us all day long.

20. Anyone who mocks American culture is an idiot.  In music alone America has given the world blues, country, bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll, soul, funk, disco, hip hop, punk, grunge and more.  None of those things could have happened anywhere else.

21. About 80% of the world’s great cultural achievements were a result of human misery and oppression (see #4, #6 and #20 above).  The other 20% happened in Florence.

22. If all of your friends think like you do, it probably means you’re dull, a bigot, or both.

23. Everyone should own a recording of Beethoven’s 9th.  I mean, there are “great” recordings and all, but even the bad recordings are usually really good.  And cheap.

24. Racism is still one of America's biggest problems.  This falls under: “Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”

25. You shouldn't wait until you are 37 to get a tattoo.  But if you do, you should try and make up for lost time very quickly.

26. You should ignore most life advice from friends and family, unless it resonates with you.  They are often motivated by their desire to keep you safe, which paradoxically may keep you from being happy. Ignore about 99.9% of advice given by teachers, pastors, school principals, and politicians.  Most of them aren't thinking about your future happiness at all.

27. A lot of people say they believe the Bible and even quote it to support their opinions.  Almost no one has actually read it.

28. Don't selectively quote others to support your opinions. Anyone who has said anything worth hearing has left a body of work and anything they said should be understood within that conext.

29. If you can’t stand what you are doing, do something else.  No one can make that decision for you.  Stop being a cliché.

30. Singing is central to the human experience.  If you don’t sing regularly, you are preventing yourself from being fully human.

31. About 90% of the things people do are motivated by their insecurities.  This is just an average.  It’s actually 93% for me.

32. Life is absurdly angular, irregular, messy, complicated, and mysterious.  I've stopped listening to anyone who offers linear narratives to the universe: all the evidence points to something contrary.  There is birth and death and love and hate and joy and pain and fear and boldness and just plain weirdness in myriad combinations, and we try to use the tools we have to make sense of it.  Sometimes we can. Other times just leave us puzzled and hoping for the best.

33. “Plan B” is usually better than “Plan A.”  We’re typically forced into “Plan B” because something in our life or experience or personality doesn’t resonate with our current path.  This doesn’t necessarily mean we made the wrong decision to begin with, it’s just that circumstances – and people – can change.  It also doesn’t mean that it is not exceptionally painful.

34. Plans C, D, E, F, G, and H can be pretty good, too.

35. Everything that happens to us makes us who we are.  To wish away our pain is to wish that we were someone else.

36. Love comes in lots of ways.  We should be open to it every time we encounter it.

37. Each of us has different faces we show – to friends, family, colleagues, children, authority, and lovers – and they are all true. It is at times most difficult to show your true self to family, for fear of disappointing them, causing them pain, or invoking their anger.  Paradoxically, they are the ones most likely to accept us when they see our true selves.  

38. Most cultural institutions – schools, governments, churches, etc. – are committed to the express purpose of suppressing in us what comes most naturally.  Sometimes these “natural” urges are destructive and merit suppression.  Sometimes they just violate social mores and are a threat to those in power.  

39. Those who hold power over others rarely, if ever, relinquish it willingly.

40. America is a police state.  The police in this country are overwhelmingly corrupt and committed to the violation of the rights of her citizens. This, coupled with the increasing militarization of our police force has led to an untenable situation.

41. Our government is, by and large, completely corrupt. For some it is "hard corruption," the sort of thing you imagine when you hear the word: vote buying, extortion, perhaps even murder. For most it is "soft corruption," however: serving at the behest of PACs or party bosses, corporate interests, or others, rather than citizens.

42. Socialism is the most underrated and the most reasonable form of government there is.

43. Our ancestors committed the self-same sins we have, though the accepted narrative may lead us to believe otherwise.  

44. There are lots of ways for things to be true.  Scientific truth is not the same as artistic truth, mathematical truth is not the same as metaphysical truth, and so on.

45. Stories help us understand the world.  This is why books are so important.  No one will end their life thinking they’ve read too much.

46. Most people believe that they are not creative.  This is not true.  Our educational systems lead people to this conclusion through the systematic suppression of the creative urge and the express teaching that creativity is the realm of the exceptional or the super-gifted.  Many of the problems we face as a culture could be solved if we cultivated a creative disposition in students.

47. Our educational system has also done an exceptionally poor job of helping us learn to weigh evidence and make decisions.  We give lip service to “critical thinking,” but if we are not prepared to challenge our own presuppositions and biases, there is nothing “critical” about it.

48. Most people believe the things they do without any evidence that they are true.  Maybe it's just that our beliefs reinforce our own prejudices, or maybe it's just laziness.  Much lip service is given to questioning received wisdom, but not many of us ever will.

49. The smartest people in the world read constantly, experience life fully, travel frequently, and talk to everyone they can.  A few of them have college degrees. 

50. Everyone should dance more.

51. If you ask someone what the best of day of his life was, he usually will say something like, "The day my son was born."  It makes me wonder what sort of terrible children they raised.

52. Human beings have enormous capacities, though we suffer on the one hand from romantic notions about those and on the other from crass cynicism masquerading as wisdom.  We expect too little from ourselves and others, and we are worse as a race for it.

53. Everyone is the central character in his or her own life story.  We like to imagine that others play supporting roles and that there are occasional cameos, but this is just arrogance.  If we could just stop and listen more . . . life can be really wondrous at times.

54. There is a great deal of wisdom to be had from the world's books of religion and mythology, if read correctly. If read literally and in an ethical vacuum, they may be the source of bigotry. Read with imagination, they may be liberating. It may be that Satan is the chief hero of the Bible.

55. Jesus is dead. It seems incredibly irrational to believe otherwise.

56. Ain't nothin' better in this whole wide world than rock-and-roll music and a fat-bottomed girl.