Looking through my list of approximately 30 books read in 2024, it follows the tenets established in previous years: a.) Unlike Best of Lists found in newspapers etc. I keep it very short, and I limit it to works I’ve personally read (no committee necessary; no compromising) and b.) and some theme usually emerges. Last year it was misery. This year my reading orbited around my five-week trip to Europe. Or I at least shoehorned those patterns into this list.
Another metric of a book’s impact is the number of index cards I utilize for my reading notes. For most books I read this year (listed on home page sidebar) it only takes a single card. Anything above that threshold merits consideration.
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle Books 2 and 3 (6 index cards of notes)
Books 2 and 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s magnum opus My Struggle, I read the Book #3 (aka Boyhood) in preparation for my trip to Norway and Sweden. Despite one critic’s quip of “he’s interesting even when he’s boring” I opted for Book #2 ( aka First Love) to take with me while traveling. I always want to bring something hefty (over 500 pages) when I am on a long trip because one never knows about possible delays. People can get edgy and short-tempered in these situations, but if I have something decent to read, I can remain uncharacteristically calm.
Detailed reviews of both books are in earlier posts “Swedish Book Notes” and “Norwegian Book Notes”). After reading these two books I felt I had found my inner Scandinavian.
Paul Beatty Slumberland
As one who has read two of his other books The Sellout and White Boy Shuffle, no writer consistently elicits fiendish laughs from me more than Paul Beatty. Slumberland (2008) is set in 1989 Berlin soon after the collapse of the wall separating East and West. Here's an accurate plot summary from bookbrowse.com:
“Ferguson Sowell, aka DJ Darky, wants to create the sonic Mona Lisa: a song that will bring together every partygoer with an irresistible toe-tapping beat. He debuts his near-perfect beat to his LA-based music collective, the Beard Scratchers, and they all agree that the song is only missing one thing: a guest appearance by a man they call "the Schwa"—Charles Stone, a legendary jazz player who disappeared to Europe decades ago. DJ Darky has one clue to finding Stone: a pornographic videotape with an undeniably Schwa-like soundtrack. He traces the tape to a West Berlin bar called Slumberland, where DJ Darky eventually takes a job as a 'jukebox sommelier,' collecting the most party-friendly tunes in the Western world.”
This is similar to the description I read in at a bookstore in Oslo (hence the European connection) and I could not resist purchasing the book, especially since my older daughter Cynthia lives in Berlin, and I have some familiarity with the city.
This is a book that celebrates people who have passion for bizarre music or musical history at least. Examples:
——Stone’s breakout EP was Darker Side of Moon which came out around the same time as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Beatty writes "Due to clerical errors and acid-rock fans tweaked on microdots, the record did a steady if not brisk mail-order business."
——The ins and outs of producing soundtracks for porn films.
——Bands with really good names rarely make it.
——Skinhead collectors of Fascist music on 78s (old vinyl records) with titles such as “I Don’t Believe Hitler Can Fly; I Know He Can Fly, ” or "If Mother Won't Give You a Nickel, Ask Neville Chamberlain For a Dime."
——That Lawrence Welk once covered the The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night”.
——Schwa leads a movement "to rebuild the Berlin Wall with music instead of concrete, barbed wire and machine guns 'n' shit."
Like his previous books, Beatty has pitch perfect satirical timing.
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Gathering Moss a Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
I often read books that I am considering carrying in my popup bookstore Destination: Books. The center of my inventory often centers on books on gardening, sustainability and related topics. The Gathering Moss book deep dives on everything moss, its history, its sex life, conditions where it propagate and some of its amazing properties such as its absorbency. Kimmerer informs us that moss was used as a diaper by Native American tribes in the West. The things you learn when you read.
Gathering Moss (2012) was written years before her bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass. I brought a copy Sweetgrass with me to Europe since Cynthia’s boyfriend Boris is very involved with Berlin’s Community Garden scene. Moreover, as a sound artist, I thought he would appreciate Slumberland as well, so I sent him a copy.
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