buying books I’ve already read is so much fun
I’ve been buying copies of books that I’ve already read, but which I borrowed from friends or libraries. It’s an incredibly satisfying experience, though, because I get to add them to my “read” shelf (I segregate my read and unread fiction) without having to do any work (I did it already, years ago!).
Just got a copy of Craig Clevenger’s deeply flawed but mostly pretty interesting The Contortionist’s Handbook today, which I read, like, six years ago. The stuff about counterfeiting and evading psychiatric confinement were great, but the stuff about doing cocaine and being into the New York Dolls were annoying (anytime I see myself or the kinds of thing I would write if I had no self-awareness or fear of being a Bret Easton Ellis knockoff, I get a little squeamish). (Basically, creating obviously “hip” characters is something I feel should pretty much always be avoided in fiction for some reason, unless they’re basically just total parodies. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it makes things feel dated or something? The most obnoxious thing about The Rules of Attraction for me was the fact that the guy listens to the Velvet Underground. I listen to the Velvet Underground, but I really don’t want the characters I read about (even if the character and I are of more or less the same “type”) to listen to the bands I like for some reason, unless it’s something really generic, like the Beatles (or if it’s a book about music and music fandom, like High Fidelity or something). I think it’s that it comes off as namedropping, and namedropping always leaves a bad taste.)
