was laid up with (what i assume was) the flu last week/over the weekend, which means i was bedridden for four days, which means i read a whole lot because there wasn't much else to do when i wasn't sleeping or thinking i was dying ... which is maybe a tad melodramatic, but i'm alone here in new york, and being sick alone is really just pure misery.
(my mum called to check in on me every day and took advantage of the situation to get in her, see, this is why you should move back to california bit to which i replied, no, this is why i need a husband.)
(this is why i'm flying out to california for a week next month. there's nothing like getting the flu alone to make any grown person want family.) (and tacos.)
it kinda goes without saying that it was a great reading week: plowed (and i mean plowed) my way through kim thúy's mãn (random house canada, 2014), jenny offill's dept. of speculation (knopf, 2014), patricia park's re jane (viking, forthcoming 2015), and megan whalen turner's the queen of attolia (harpercollins, 2001), made significant headway into caitlin doughty's smoke gets in your eyes (norton, 2014), and listened to jonathan franzen's the discomfort zone (FSG, 2006). i loved the characters of the queen of attolia so much that i had to pop in at mcnally jackson yesterday (the first time i left my flat in four days, and what a glorious, freezing day it was) and buy its follow-up, the king of attolia (greenwillow books, 2006).
that was a lot of titles in one paragraph.
sometimes, these posts are easier to write, and, other times, i sit here staring at the blinking cursor on my screen and think, now what? what is there i want to say? today is one of those latter days, maybe because it's so fucking cold outside or because i've still got the remnant lingering congestion and cough from the flu or because i'm back to editing my manuscript which inevitably consumes much of my life.
so links! let's do links! i've wanted to do a post of links for a while!
- if you've read the southern reach trilogy, read this atlantic article by jeff vandermeer about the adventure writing the trilogy. if you haven't read it ... what're you doing still reading this? go! read it! go!
- this is one of my favorite blog posts ever.
- laura van den berg's first novel, find me, is published tomorrow (by FSG). read an excerpt here. (i'm going to a reading on wednesday, so look out for that post, too!)
- here's one of my favorite pieces from my favorite rookie writer. (jenny zhang is fucking awesome to hear read.)
- here's my favorite band performing one of my favorite songs. it's a youtube video of their whole concert, but it's timed to start at the song, "counting pulses." (unless i failed at doing that ... oops.)
thanks for hanging around, and have a great week!