an incomplete review of my recent reads. for a more complete list, see my goodreads

• Didion – The White Album
• Crawford – Shop Class as Soulcraft
• Hesse – The Glass Bead Game
• Durkheim – Suicide: A Study in Sociology
• Vonnegut – God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater // A Man Without a Country
• Smith – Dead and Alive
• Orlean – Joyride

Didion – The White Album

good writing…but (and don’t bite my head off) i’m not sure if she lived up to the hype for me. certainly, i can believe that she changed the course of the genre and influenced generations of writers—but without having lived in LA during the 60s/70s, i don’t have the nostalgia to really bring it to life. it feels somewhat like reading Faulkner: the prose is often great, and i apreciate having such a skilled guide, but ultimately i am only a visitor to the time and place at hand.

Crawford – Shop Class as Soulcraft

i suspect that if i weren’t a leatherworker somewhat taken with the romantic formulation of craft (cf. my column in the Stanford Daily), then i wouldn’t enjoy this book very much. luckily, i am, so, instead of finding it sermonizing and abstract, i found some utility in the ideas put forward. it probably also helps that i’m not put off by academic writing (Crawford has a PhD in political philosophy) in the way some others drawn to the title alone might be.

Hesse – The Glass Bead Game

i started this partly because i thought it would give me a good kick to the rear (being a college student who is likely to get stuck in my own glass bead game), but it really reignited my want to read for pleasure. even though i could tell this wasn’t his best work (it was good! but it wouldn’t win a Nobel prize alone), i devoured it in just a few voracious sittings. i didn’t learn any lessons about getting lost amidst abstract academia, but i did learn that i need to dedicate far more time to reading fiction.

Durkheim – Suicide: A Study in Sociology

in terms of his statistical methods, this is painful to read. but luckily Durkheim gives us analytic categories that are useful beyond their statistical fabrication—and, indeed, their relationship to suicide. i wrote, for one of my classes, about how Portuguese author and poet Fernando Pessoa embodies the idea of egoism, and why egoism can expand our understanding of peri-/post-war Europe beyond the typical usage of anomie.

Vonnegut – God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater // A Man Without a Country

fun reads, with good witticisms, but i won’t pretend to have gotten more out of them than that. funnily enough, two different people got me “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” for my birthday. to quote one: “i know you like books about crazy old men”

Smith – Dead and Alive

Zadie Smith is of a certain ilk of female essayists that i can describe no further. they share a characteristic i cannot name, but i could tell you immediately whether an author you name belongs there or not. i’ve never read a book of Smith’s, but i love her prose, and this collection did not disappoint.

Orlean – Joyride

a joyride indeed. it took a moment to pick up to full pace, but i loved coming along for the ride: it was inspiring, refreshing, and fun, despite the fact that i haven’t read any of her other books (though surely i’ve come across her work in the New Yorker).