Contemporary Fiction

[Dave Monroe]

I by and large gave on on contmeporary music ca. the
turn of the decade/century/millenium/whatever, mostly
because (a) I was spending what money I had to spend
on such things (and even quite a bit of money I DIDN'T
necessarily have) on vintage vinyl (up to and
including the 90s) and (b) my trusty Melody Maker,
which I relied on as my primary filter for what to
look out for (esp. in terms of, what to order, uh,
sight unheard, 'cos most everything I was interested
in was coming out in the UK significantly eralier than
it would here), went under.  I've only recently begun
to reconnect, so ...

But beyond Pynchon and SF, I've never been much of a
contemporary (as in, hot off the presses) fiction
reader.  And I read more nonfiction tahn fiction as it
is.  Hipster kids hauling around things like Infinite
Jest and House of Leaves, much less swooning over
Eggers and Sedaris and Foer, has only served to
discourage me from reading any of them them (and I
STILL haven't done so, so ...).  The Corrections,
Motherless Brooklyn, Middlesex, and so forth, some
I've even given--successfully--as gifts, but without
ever intending to read them myself ...  

I HAVE picked up a few odd things mentioned here along
the way (and that Cloud Atlas sounded interesting as
well), and Vollmann and Gaddis (have only even
attepted the big novels) are always in the air, but I
can't recall off hand what I've gotten to.  What's
worth the time/effort?  At least before Nov. 21st ...

But i' really feeling my impending mortality, like I
really should be reading War and Peace, or the REST of
Don Quixote, or the Bible, for that matter ...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com