Starting my next (and, let’s face it, given my current reading speed, last) #WITMonth book. (Translated by Sandra Smith)

Finished my Todd Haynes mini-retrospective by rewatching this, a fittingly fragmentary and allusive portrait of Dylan.

Starting off #WITMonth in the grimmest way possible with this “masterpiece of antifascist world literature”.

Watched the second in my ongoing series* of films by Todd Haynes about women named Carol. This one is also very good. *OK, fine, there are just two of them, but I couldn’t resist pointing it out

Rewatched this unsettling film after many years. I think I struggled with the film’s tone on my first viewing, but the second time around, I realized more that its blankness is part of the point. The essay by Dennis Lim included with the Criterion edition is very illuminating.

I am well aware that my ratio of books purchased to books read is quite astronomical this year, but what am I supposed to do, stop buying books? Also: I am clearly a sucker for old Penguins, but the spine of that Bennett is really going to bug me.

More new additions to the shelves (I may have gotten a little carried away).

As a lover of obscure books, and a lover of lists, this is exactly the content I am here for. Relatedly, I have taken to researching the book lists advertised at the back of old books that I read, which mostly consist of books I’ve never heard of. Here’s my latest:

Celebrating one of my favourite Christmas traditions: finally getting around to using my gift cards by the end of May.

Very niche, but also want to mention the fascinating little book that first put this one on my radar

I don’t pre-order books very often these days, but when I do, they are usually obscure books written over 200 years ago. Very excited for this one!

Went to a reconstructed pioneer village, complete with historically accurate bookshelf. Some things change, but the greatest novel ever written obviously does not.

Frustrated to discover that my copy of this book (which I have owned for a long time) duplicates a section of 32 pages and omits the following 32- which of course includes one of the chapters I am most interested in.

Continuing my quest for Kurosawa completionism, I just watched this fantastic film. This poster is incredibly deceptive though- it is a film about finding hope in hopeless times (so yeah, appropriate and timely).

Not a tie-in cover, but I never miss an opportunity to post my equally comical cover of that book.

Amused by the fact that this book, which includes a passing reference to Glenda Jackson, also features a blurb by Glenda Jackson. One imagines the publicity team reading the introduction and getting no further than page 2- “problem solved- we’ll just call up GJ!”

Now reading: I know this book has been reissued, but I am a sucker for these old New Canadian Library editions- probably because of my childhood memories, as my parents had many of these.

In The Cult song, “New York City”, I know the line is “Hell’s Kitchen is a DMZ” but my brain always hears it as “Hell’s Kitchen is a DMV”

There were also some birthday books:

My daughter’s commitment to her tradition of giving me a Frankenstein themed birthday present every year is truly impressive.

During grad school, I spent the better part of a summer with this book, and it came to mean a lot to me. Fortunately, I didn’t read the whole thing, so there is still more to look forward to.

A lot has been said about Del Toro’s questionable choices in his Frankenstein, but if you really want to talk about questionable choices, I have just the movie for you:

Thinking about Brian Moore because of nonsuchbook.bsky.social and because he is finally up next for me, 6 years after the Nov 2019 library sale when I bought many of his books. At the time ds228.bsky.social teased me that I wouldn’t get to the M shelf for 3 years. He massively overestimated me.

Christmas books. Some of you may note how heavily my wish list was influenced by conversations on here:

For some strange reason, it has become a family tradition to go to the local zoo first thing Christmas morning to sing “Feliz Navidad” to the meerkats. This year, we had some very patient tortoises in the audience as well.

Now reading: I bought this lovely volume the last time I was in Montreal. (Mental note: go back to Montreal some day)

Now Reading. I started this book on a flight from Ottawa to Halifax in 2016 and never got back to it. This is my whole problem in a nutshell!

Back to my classic Canlit (although I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book with the words “#1 Bestseller” on the cover before)

Poking fun at PBS

Laughing already. Milligan spoofs the language of the original very closely.