sunday salon: drunks and addicts, perverse pr, and woolfie read

 

Haphazard reading and blogging of late. But am digging out from personal and professional pleas for my time. And digging out from the ridiculous amount of snow this winter. Can see the light and that always calls for one thing. I have to clean the computer. Not talking Windex. I mean the inbox, the desktop, the bookmarks, the notepad reminders. And what is worth saving and sharing here today? So that I might delete it and secure closure?

Apparently I am a big fan of drunks and addicts as some of my favorite writers can be found in this Life collection of photos of literary champions of illicit consumption. Includes this great photo of Jack London and many more. Check it out.

 

Top of my to do list for this week is to secure an advance copy of The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis. A fan of his writing (especially London Fields), but that is not the full reason why the new book has become a point of fixation for me. Have come to the conclusion that the many entries of the author's recent piss-off-the-world behavior in my aggregator are part of some perverse pr campaign for the new novel. Euthanasia booths with martinis and medals, the sexual revolution killing his sister, the most recent scuffles with Anna Ford. Pop over to The Guardian, and search for his name. It's all there. A lot of it. So to my mind, he either knows the book is brilliant or he knows it is crap. Nothing in between or we would not have all these laughs at the theatrics. Want to know which. Any guesses? Anyone read it?

 

Not quite ready to put Woolf in Winter to bed yet, I am going to participate in the "Not the TV Book Group's" shared read of Vanessa and Virginia on March 7 hosted by Kristy at Other Stories. Plan on picking this one up today as soon as I finish The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolano.

What are you reading in the Sunday Salon today?