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Archive for May, 2007

[no longer the] CURRENT BOOK: Vikram Chandra-Sacred Games [pre pub] (2006)

Posted in A Life Less Ordinary, Big Books, David Foster Wallace, Digression, Don DeLillo, Foreign Books, Pierdomenico Baccalario, Soundtrack info, Stephen King, Vikram Chandra, William H. Gass on May 18, 2007| Leave a Comment »

sacred.jpgSOUNDTRACK: A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack (1997).

life-less.jpgFor those keeping score: at lunch, I have been listening to all of my CDs in order. This process started several years ago and really bespeaks my growing insanity. I had long since finished the A-Z bands, and have moved onto soundtracks. So, yesterday’s lunch had the great pleasure of listening to the Little Mermaid, Lock Stock and Two Smocking Barrels and A Life Less Ordinary at lunch, while reading this book!)

[READ: May 2007] Sacred Games.

MADERCHOD! MADERCHOD! MADERCHOD! ! (more…)

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Courtney Huddleston et al.–Decoy: Original Series 1-4/Storm of the Century 1-4/and these One Shots: Alloy’s Toys, Methane’s Games and Stranded; Herobear & the Kid/Decoy Crossover Pt 1. (circa 2000)

Posted in Adventure, Graphic Novel on May 18, 2007| Leave a Comment »

decoy_one_shot_3.jpgdecoy14.jpgdecoy13.jpgdecoy11.jpgdecoy12.jpgdecoy21.jpgdecoy22.jpgdecoy1sh012.jpgdecoy23.jpgdecoyheropt1.jpg

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live in Brooklyn (2006).

Wow, a 17 minute guitar solo is NOT a decoy24.jpggood way to drive to work when you’re sleepy!

[READ: May 2007] Decoy.

I first bought an issue of Decoy about 5 years ago. I had this one issue and a crossover with Herobear and the Kid. I pretty much forgot about it until I started looking at my comics again, and said, “Hey, I wonder if I can get the rest of this series?” Well, thank you Penny Farthing Press

(more…)

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What I learned… (1) [Pacing]

Posted in Digression on May 17, 2007| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live in Brooklyn (2006).

Yea, I like Phish. I am surprisephish.jpgd at the animosity felt to this band which, let’s face it, I’m sure none of their detractors could even come up with a song title of theirs. The most venomous animosity seems to come from Vermonters, or, Phish’s own neighbors. And while I can understand being a bit peeved at thousands of people traipsing through your region to see a band you don’t really like, they play some fun, enjoyable music. So, chill out, dude.

[DIGRESSION]: This morning it dawned on me that I have something like sixty books in my notebook that I intend to write about here. And, because of my circumstance, I typically read about 30 pages a day of whatever book I’m currently involved in. (This is because I basically can only read at lunch, which is an hour). Thus, I will soon be surpassing myself. And so…PACING is IMPORTANT! Must not post three books in a day again!

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Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett–Good Omens (1990)

Posted in Adventure, BritLit, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), My Morning Jacket, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett on May 17, 2007| 1 Comment »

good.jpgokonokos1.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Okonokos (2006).

[READ: Summer 2006] Good Omens.

This book is precisely what this blog is all about.

Fascinating back story: I had read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels and really enjoyed them. In fact, they are what got me into graphic novels in the first place. So, when I saw that he had written a book I thought I’d check it out. It turned out to be co-authored by some guy named Terry Pratchett. Now here’s the funny part. There is a fog on my memory. And then suddenly I am reading Terry Pratchett’s first novel The Colour of Magic in a warehouse in Cambridge, Ma. (more…)

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Nick Laird–Utterly Monkey (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Ben Elton, BritLit, Colin Bateman, Hugh Laurie, My Morning Jacket, Nick Hornby, Nick Laird, Stephen Fry, Zadie Smith on May 17, 2007| Leave a Comment »

utterly.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Okonokos (2006).okonokos1.jpg

[READ: Summer 2006] Utterly Monkey.

I have a huge fondness for British pop lit. If I go back through the years, I can see a vast number of imports: Nick Hornby, Colin Bateman, Hugh Laurie (before he was House), Stephen Fry (while he was acting with Hugh Laurie in the Jeeves and Wooster series), and Ben Elton. So, in keeping with this trend I get to Utterly Monkey. My first thought was that I didn’t remember a thing about it, but that’s not true. I remember that “utterly monkey” was a phrase meaning things were out of control. I remember it being something of a thriller with bombs and gangsters. (more…)

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Roger Rosenblatt–Lapham Rising (2006)

Posted in Books about writers, Digression, My Morning Jacket, Roger Rosenblatt, Short Books on May 16, 2007| Leave a Comment »

lapham.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Okonokos (2006). okonokos.jpg

[READ: Summer 2006] Lapham Rising.

An inauspicious start to this list, perhaps? This is the first book I journalled in my “books I read” notebook. This was read in Summer 2006, when I had a different job, and a delightful little lunch place to sit by the river and read.

To begin: this book was very short. I remember that distinctly because, as you will see, I tend to read longer books. It was described as funny, and so it was. It focused on a man who owned an island in one of those New Englandy vacation areas. His property was in high demand, and so was he, invited to do author lectures and whatnot. The book was largely about his disintegration into what would surely be madness, if he didn’t already admit to his lunacy. He talked a lot to his dog, and gave the dog human character traits which was very amusing. I laughed a few times, which is good.

[UPDATE: July 9, 2007] This review was woefully short. I want to add that the ending of the book was quite memorable, and the images of the disintegration of the character both physically and mentally still stick with me. In rethinking, the conversations and anthropomorphizing of his dog were all very funny. So, maybe this isn’t as inauspicious as I feared.

EXPOSITION: As these reviews get closer to the present I hope they’ll be more thorough, but then that’s the point of this isn’t it? Or, is the point to see which books were memorable enough to write about nine or ten months later? You be the judge.

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Yet another blog about me

Posted in Digression, Paul Debraski on May 16, 2007| 2 Comments »

Since my wife Sarah has been having such a grand time with her book reviews blog, I thought I’d do the same. So, let’s summarize… My name is Paul Debraski I started reading a long time ago, but not as long as some, I’m sure. The first books I recall reading for fun were the Lord of the Rings quadrilogy back in high school. Before then, books didn’t really hold a lot of interest for me. How I morphed into an English/Philosophy Major in college and then a Librarian by profession is a curious, twisted tale with treacherous turns, eerie alleyways and spooky sidewalks. Or, I just couldn’t get a job as a cartoonist.

My secret passion was to be a cartoonist, as in a daily stripper. In grammar school I started the best cartoon in the world: WDOG in New Jersey. (For those of you keeping track, you should be able to date this strip to coincide the height of popularity of the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati; you should be able to determine where I lived, and that the characters were canine.) I created my ensemble, I had my setting, and I had absolutely nothing to write about. I wonder where that one unfinished strip is now? This dearth of subject matter has kept me from writing many things over the years, including a blog. This will be my third attempt, but since I actually have something to write about this time, I think it’s a keeper. In fact, I believe that this paragraph has more words than all of my other blogs combined. Phew.

Several Christmases ago I gave my wife a “keeping track of books you read” journal. Because she was one of those people who did that. Then, for Christmas last year, she gave me a beautifully decoupaged notebook, and I started keeping track of the books that I read. And, now, I’m going to keep track of them and write brilliantly insightful things about them right here. This will come in handy for me, and will be especially poignant when you get to the review of Good Omens somewhere in the next few weeks.

So, what do you have to look forward to: literature, graphic novels, hilarious commentary, useful hyperlinks and wry observation. I’ll bet you can’t wait!

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