I Finally Caught Up

I recently found myself stuck trying to decide what book to read next. This had never happened to me before, I’ve always had a book on deck waiting for me to finish the one on hand. I’m not sure why it happened, but it turned out to be a good twist on my usual reading habits, because I had to sit down and really think about what kind of story I wanted to dive into next.

This in turn got me thinking about the series of books I had just read and the ones that were still sitting on my list, which created a personal context for my choice that I had never considered before. I generally consider myself a reader of Classics more than anything else, but I found that I did not want to dive back into the past for the time being, that I’d already tackled—or at least attempted to tackle—most of the old weighty Classics that I’d always planned to read, and those that remained were ones I suspect will get better with age (my age).

I always expected myself to give a fair shake to Jane Austen, James Joyce, Herman Melville… maybe it’s because the world has gone so crazy, but right now I can’t bring myself to slow down enough for Victorian social dramas, or opaque Irish Catholic repression, or 1000 pages of flowery symbolism...

So I searched for books based on genres and topics, browsing through titles and their synopses, which is another thing I almost never do. And in this way I ended up choosing a book that had only just been published a few months earlier. So for the first time in many years, I am reading contemporary literature, and it was a good choice.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is awesome. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but I can already say that I highly recommend it. Don’t read any plot synopsis if you want to read this book, it’s beautiful the way it reveals itself. I would not be surprised if this book becomes a Classic in the future, and I hope it does. One of my favorite things about it is how strongly it reminds of the classic computer game Myst (a trippy, ethereal mystery solving game from the ‘90s). It has the vibe.

You may have noticed I’m not living up to my pledge to read more bad books (see here), and you would be right. But I will make some time for it… one of these days…

Thanks for reading! Keeping it short today because I was working on my new real live video poem UNLUCKY! Check it out!

Peace,

Mr. Gibs