Bookishness: or more accurately two great books

Absurdistan: A Novel - Gary Shteyngart

The second book by master satirist gary Schtenygart is, almost inexplicably, even funnier than his astounding debut novel, “The Russian Debutants Handbook.” In it, a spoiled but oddly lovable Russian trust fund twenty-something, is exiled from the states after a joyous existence through college at an Oberlin-like liberal arts college, and a moveable feast in New York city upon graduation, and has to go back to Russia after his quasi mobster father is accused of murdering a small time crook in New Jersey. Trapped in bland post war Russia, despite a lush existence partying with a sea of American expats and living off the fruits of his father’s slightly crooked business exploits, he dreams of leaving the dreary Soviets skies and embarks on one of the funniest journey’s you are likely to read. Schentgart is a comic genius and his characters are ripped from the diaries of early Woody Allen.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More – Chris Anderson

For those who haven’t read the indisputable economic theory deemed the Long Tail, but do conduct the commerce of your life on the web, or who are now able to more easily maintain a particularly niche passion leveraging the internet, this is a must read. Although Wired editor Chris Anderson tends to beat you over the head with the logic and applicability of his theory, the simple and elegant articulation of how niche tastes when applied to a global market make the simple business economics work is nothing short of exceptional. My life spent combing the globe for small hard to find cultural gems, is validated in some ways in knowing that all of these artists who had formerly toiled in poverty creating for a few arrogant souls like me, now have a global audience that can access their work. The Long Tail is easily the most readable economic book you will ever find.

control freak. This is muckraking fun for indie film zealots.

Bookishness

Night – by Ellie Wiesel
Like “The Painted Bird” before it, this thin, horrifying memoir of the concentration camps at the end of WWII, the realities of this author’s survival and existence read like a surreal fiction. Sixty years later, the cloud of Nazi Germany still feels like a blanket trying to shake free.

Prep – by Curtis Sittenfeld
Reluctantly I found myself revisiting prep school through the eyes of a girl also from the Midwest. Although often it bordered on the aggravating, “Prep” is a good a look at the modern prep school experience as there has been in quite a while. (more…)

Kafka On The Shore – Haruki Murakami
Another surreal epic about a boy looking for himself in a world filled with ghosts. Murakami proves again that he is the best writer this side of WWII.
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