Image by robo7 on Flickr

A bleary set of eyes I find upon me this morning, but my brain is alive and kicking, and in fact, has been alive and kicking all night long. My increased levels of brain agitation are probably part of the reason for the bleariness of my eyes.

Anyway, part of this brain agitation lead to me dreaming about two good friends of mine and their newly published book, a beautiful embossed hardcover in a powder red colour. The only problem is that it doesn’t exist, that is, outside the realm of my dreams – unless there’s something  S and D haven’t been telling us.

Unless they have kept it under wraps, it belongs purely in Lucien’s library¹, and I truly hope that Unkie Dave and his Very Understanding Girlfriend steal it out of there and get writing.

I know I’d love to read it.

(Unfortunately I cannot remember what it was about nor what the title of the book was, which is probably not a huge amount of help)

Date Added: October 31st, 2009 | Leave a comment!

I’m still in bed. In some ways this is fortunate today as the weather outside is truly miserable, hard to believe it is the longest day today – although I was blessed with an amazing sunset last night that went on and on getting richer and richer in colour.

Being in bed has one advantage, I am afforded a rare chance to read books and watch more movies. I am finally getting my head back into reading more books and I must say that it feels very good.

I started off by easing myself in with some Alan Moore graphic novels – he really is a master of his craft, and well worth checking out, even if you’re not attracted to the graphic novel genre. From Hell absolutely blew me away and I’d highly recommend it.

I’ve just finished a few new books, having got through all my Christmas presents (including the excellent “Death and the Penguin” by Andey Kurkov). Last read was a Louis de Bernieres novel called “A Partisan’s Daughter”, which did not fulfil my expectations following on from his trilogy beginning with “The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts” which was absolutely fantastic.

I’m reading a random present from Gaia now, Louis Theroux’s “The Call of the Weird” which I’m enjoying and is a fairly easy read. Next up include:

• Saki – The Best of Saki
• John Burnside – Glister
• Iain M. Banks – Consider Phlebas
• John McGahern – Amongst Women

There isn’t much connecting any of these books I realise as I look at them stacked by my bedside table, but I’m looking forward to each one and I certainly won’t be getting bored any time soon. I’ve already lined up my next plans for reading, including David’s recommendation of Cormac MacCarthy, a random purchase of Victor Pelevin, and, having just rewatched Before Night Falls, I am finally going to buy some books by the Cuban writer Reinaldos Arenas.

Before Night Falls is a really beautiful film, directed by Julian Schnabel – who also directed Basquiat, a film I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time. Javier Bardem plays Reinaldos Arenas and he is absolutely captivating and earnt himself an Academy Award nomination (very much unjustly beaten to the post by Denzel Washington in Training Day – no comparison in my book).

With a very well judged score provided by one of my favourites – Carter Burwell – and with consistently beautiful cinematography, I highly recommend watching this film.

I’ll post again about this when I’ve read some of Reinaldos Arenas’ work.

Some more random photos from the film:

Date Added: June 21st, 2008 | 2 Comments