Archives Under "bedtime stories" (RSS)
recent reading
5 May 2012 | bedtime stories, comix | 4 comments
ploughed thru many manga scanlations but few worthy of note – “boys on the run” by kengo hanazawa much loved tho – acutely embarrassing and painfully funny – the one-off “shark skin man and peach hip girl” by mochizuki minetaro (creator of “dragon head”) also enjoyed – “abara” by tsutomu nifei, like all his books made less sense the more you read but would love to play a video game that looked like this – and read “blankets” by craig thompson just to see what all the fuss is about – it is a good read, tho the religious stuff grated for me – also finally finished russell brand’s “booky wook 2″ – comedy books always a bit of a slog, if not unreadable (rik mayall!)
…in a way brings me to irvine welsh’s “skagboys”, my current bedtime story – a hefty great brick of a book cobbled together from “trainspotting” leftovers – a prequel – picking this up in the bookstore i was actually most taken and sold by the nice fetishistic soft rubber-ish feel to the cover, haha! – i wouldn’t call myself a fan but have read many of his books – mostly quite entertaining – tho always wonder how american and other foreign readers deal with the scottish vernacular – even without having to translate this word by word it’s a bit of a slow read – but around 160 pages in i’m starting to get into it – thatcher era setting always good for me
new reading matter
3 March 2012 | bedtime stories, comix | 1 comment
shinjuku kinokuniya foreign floor have rearranged their shelves – and introduced the foreign bookstore comfy chairs thing (personally i don’t see how this exactly encourages sales?) – the happiest (tho maybe short-lived due to lack of interest) result of this for me is a slightly bigger improved comix section with increased stock of fantagraphics and indie books – not as cheap as amazon.jp but at least no three week wait and order cancellation – the joost swarte “(nearly) complete comics” book snapped up on sight – and an obligatory once-over at the books on japan section added another item to my shopping basket – gaijin books are a generally unsatisfying genre (this one a notable exception) – they are either serious, staid and dull or else frivolous otaku culture crap (typically little more than useless out-of-date shop lists written by japanophiles who probably spent no more than two weeks in japan) – “tune in tokyo” looks pretty promising tho – witty and apparently self-obsessed – i’m okay with that – at least it’s unlikely he’ll be bragging with fake modesty about first name friendship with every yakuza boss in japan and simply talking day-to-day nonsense i can relate to
new/recent reading matter
31 December 2011 | art, bedtime stories, comix | 4 comments
everything you wanted to know and more behind maus
a book amazon failed to send me but my sister managed to get for me (r crumbo for crimbo!) – tho the parcel opened for inspection by japanese customs – some malignant force didn’t want me to get hold of it? – anyway, everything you wanted to know and more behind crumb’s genesis book – a 50 page joe sacco interview too makes it even more attractive despite taking up 5 centimeters of my precious bookshelf space
another xmas present, already read – about an amateur writer getting ghostwriters to rewrite her tale of the tallest man in the world employed to rescue two dolphins by reaching his long arms down their throats and pulling out shards of plastic that they’d eaten and had become stuck in their stomach lining – the novel made up of hilarious email exchanges and the (tedious) rewrites – the dolphin story is actually true and i’d like to think the whole thing was a real prank conducted by jake posing as the batty writer, reproducing actual letters etc – quote by dinos on the back cover also wickedly funny: “I always suspected that Jake wasn’t really an artist, having read this I suspect he’s not really a writer either.”
self-confessed nutcase and self-confessed best artist in the world – but, really, any artist that doesn’t really believe they are the best should give up now?! – the former her autobiography (from 2002) just published in english for the first time – the latter a nice magazine style overview of her career to date in japanese and english
new reading matter
29 September 2011 | art, bedtime stories | 1 comment
fat book of essays on yba and pop artists (and a bit on the clash for some reason) by gordon burn, the drinking buddy of damien hirst
I hate it when people write things that sound like they’ve swallowed a fucking dictionary
says damien – or to quote romain slocombe (from the intro to my forthcoming b/w book): critics are as essential to art as ants to a picnic (…paraphrasing george sanders) – but gordon burn is not yer typical art commentator – his previous book of interviews with hirst was decidedly down to earth chat re the passion for art – i was also very partial to his novelistic books on the yorkshire ripper and fred’n'rose west
no kill no thrill
19 September 2011 | bedtime stories, crime | 4 comments
starts off well with self professed “sexist slob” leonard lake expounding on his philosophy – a monologue for the benefit of a home video tape – but then, with expectations raised high, the rest of the book becomes an unfulfilling bore – there’s NO details of the actual murders (!) – barely even a mention of torture – what you do get is a parade of females who lake tried to charm the bras off for photo album souvenirs – and assorted complete humdrum life stories of anyone who had any remote connection with lake and/or ng – always stopping abruptly at “and then he disappeared never to be heard from again” dot dot dot – we’re left to presume killed by lake and ng – but he might just as well have jumped in a lake – who knows? – this book certainly won’t tell you – second half of the book devoted to ng’s trial, even less titillating (i was reading but the words were no longer particularly sinking in) – okay, it seems maybe nothing at all is known of the murders (not even a hazard guess here offered as to motive) but I’d have preferred not to have read over 400 pages (promising to be “the terrifying true story”) to discover that – if you’ve no information and no insights, at least indulge in some tantalising speculation – it’s standard for true crime books – bah!, give me back the two weeks wasted reading this
