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Oenothera

Oenothera


A favorite quote from a favorite poet:

"Oh to vex me, contraries meet in one:
inconstancy unnaturally hath begot
a constant habit."
- John Donne,
Holy Sonnet XIX more »
  • Independence, CA, USA
  • member since February 20 2007

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Oenothera’s last login was 3 weeks ago. show recent activity »

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Public Notes

  • TimmyMac

    TimmyMac says

    Nice to see another Ed Abbey reader on here!

    posted 6 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Cate

    Cate says

    Faulkner is one of my favorite authors...may I be on your friends list

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Well, now I'm the one who's been incommunicado. Tell you the truth, I haven't been reading much lately, a lot going on. I did just finish Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn; I recommend it if you haven't read it. Now I'm in the middle of The Devil's Doctor, a biography of Paracelsus. Very interesting, if a bit disorganized. Also reading Byron's Don Juan, and (once again) trying to learn enough Spanish to fake it. I think maybe I'm just too lazy to learn another language!

    If you're on fb or last.fm or somesuch, I'd probably see you more often.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Haven't heard from my favorite Kant-scoffer in weeks, so I thought I would send you this link:
    http://crookedtimber.org/2007/12/09/in-defense-of-kant/

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Went with The Best and the Brightest. Going to DC this week with the kids so I figured it was appropriate. Finish Harlot's Ghost yet?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Graham

    Graham says

    I see you were reading 'In This House Of Brede'. I haven't read it, but it was a tv movie in 1975 starring Diana Rigg.

    Graham

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Meatball!

    Meatball! says

    Hey, how's it going?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Graham

    Graham says

    Hi Oenothera,

    You have a rich variance of books. What's your favouritre genre? Hope you are ok.

    Best Wishes,

    Graham

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Oh, and btw, if you're not going to read your copy of Becoming a Billionaire while Doing Absolutely Nothing, perhaps you could lend it to me...

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Aha! I was thinking we have way too much in common for two random people... I prefer history and biography to the non-fiction of place (but I like the label.) I always want to read McPhee, I have several of his books--they look fascinating--but can never get into them. I severely dislike self-help books and 'business' books also, although I've flipped through my share of the latter, hoping I might glean some magical insight, and I'll read business history (e.g. Barbarians at the Gate type stuff.) I like to read books about physics and math (although not mathematically technical stuff... I don't have the chops for that anymore.)

    I've also read my share of adventure-travel non-fiction, always ending up promising myself to train for El Cap or Denali and then not...

    I understand how one could not like Eliot, for his glibness (is that a word? it sounds wrong somehow... glibosity? glibosterousness?) or Proust, for his earnestness, but how could you dislike both? Either the previous reader simply dislikes the highbrow or there really is a message in there. If the mysterious margin-writer starts to rail against Blake or his ilk, then we'll pretty much have the psychic landscape covered.

    In a similar vein, your new avatar seem appropriately mysterious, in line with the season. What are you going to be for halloween?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    I sort of like sophomoric nihilism. When I was younger I preferred the serious nihilism (celine, rimbaud) but now I like it a bit tongue in cheek. One of my favorite authors for times when I'm too tired to concentrate is George Pelecanos, who's got the noir thing down, but updated.

    Harlot's Ghost does have an open-ended ending. Sorry! I remember it being unsatisfying at the time, but later thinking that it was the only ending that made sense for a quasi-historical novel about a secretive organization.

    I think you should write a series of numerals above the letters of one word on each page for about fifty pages and then sell the book back to a used book store, just to add to the mystery.

    I do like seeing the sun rise, I'm a bit of a morning person, but I prefer seeing when I'm on the river in my scull rather than in the living room. I'm very worried about what happens when we set the clocks back an hour... maybe I just wont go to bed :)

    I've given up on starting Bullet Park and have decided to start either The Best and the Brightest of A Bright Shining Lie instead. I think I need a break from fiction after my last book (The Savage Detectives, wonderful but difficult to sythesize.) Do you read non-fiction at all? What do you like?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Rajesh Patil

    Rajesh Patil says

    Hi
    May i have a place in your friends list.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    We could call it the Best Least-Seller's Admirer's Duopoly.

    No Bullet Park yet. My two-year old has decided to start waking up before it's light, so I've just been falling asleep at night. I'm sure it's just a phase (knock on wood.)

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Forgive you? That's my favorite book that no one else has ever read! When you're done we can form a club :)

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Hmmm. For you I'd recommend Baron in the Trees to start. It's a little more whimsical than Difficult Loves, which I think is his best writing (it's short stories.) My favorite is Invisible Cities, but it's not a traditional narrative. Invisible Cities is great to read a few pages a day. He also wrote (retold?) a book called Italian Folktales that is wonderful.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • ~~~~ HaMundR@ ~~~~

    ~~~~ HaMundR@ ~~~~ says

    Hello, you have a gr8 shelf, did help me built my to-read-least, thank you. Not as extensive a reader as u though reason being have a lil time crunch to get associated to this passion of mine but shelf like yours trust me are motivation tools…..

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    Something's definitely up with Shelfari notes... I guess that's why they have "beta" above the name still.

    I've been in or around NYC most of my life. Went to Columbia twice and NYU once.

    Chicago for adventure? I guess that makes sense. I can't imagine may places as diametrically opposed to Santa Fe as Chicago. I like Chicago. The people are so much more open than New York... I guess it's that midwestern thing.

    Sending out applications? Boy, I don't miss that. What type of work are you seeking, if you don't mind me asking?

    Did you finish the last twenty pages of Prodigal Summer? What's next? I've been carrying Cheever's "Bullet Park" around for a couple of days, getting up the gumption to start reading.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    I loved the way Thucydides told stories, that was my favorite part. But for personalities I'd rather Plutarch. But, I have to admit not being able to finsih Livy.

    You've never read Invisible Cities? I love Calvino: Baron in the Trees, Difficult Loves, pretty much everything he's written. But Invisible Cities is half book, half poem. A good book to read right before you plan to daydream.

    And JR (everything by Gaddis, really) is genius. Hard to read at first, but truly genius.

    If you aren't going to tell me what you do in Chicago, you at least have to tell me where you went to college; who learned you so good?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    OK I did my top ten, in which there are no surprises, unlike yours. I like the Abbey, and am intrigued by the Hamann, but LIvy? Really? I actually liked Thucydides, but found Livy a little dry...

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Avidya

    Avidya says

    I should do the top ten thing. To tell you the truth, I haven't spent a lot of time here since I originally set up my shelf, so I haven't implemented all the new features.

    I try to camp as often as I can, which isn't that often unfortunately. I live just outside New York City, so it's a good two hours drive to the nearest place that isn't next to a highway, a good four or five hours to a place where I can get a day's hike from civilization. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs... I'm sure you have a similar situation in Chicago.

    I love thinderstorms and I love hiking, but I don't necessarily love them both going on simultaneously :)

    So why Chicago? Work?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )


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