Black Is The New Blood

I work at a used book/music store. As most employees of such stores, we can sign out items, to read, listen to, or watch. I signed a cd out about a week ago, and told the supervisor not to laugh. She made no comment at the time, but when I signed it back in she freaked out and told me how bad she wanted to hear it. Now, there is a huge backlist to sign the disc out, mostly people I wouldn’t expect. The Cd? The new Justin Timberlake. And you know, it’s pretty fucking good. Picture Prince, full freak era.

First thoughts on Against The Day….

1. The book retails at $35.  Well, with paper costs and everything….nah… Vollmann…I can see him retailing at $35, because there aren’t going to be many takers. And paper costs, well, Little, Brown is going to publishing a 10th anniversary edition of Infinite Jest for only ten bucks.  Pynchon will sell itself. But the paper…I’ll be damned if this book doesn’t feel better that anything in recent memory. Just touching a page feels exquisite. I held it out for a co-worker to feel tonight, without saying why, and he confirmed my thoughts. Against The Day is literally the feel-good book of the year.

2. The first chapter….I emailed a fellow Pynchonite about this early this morning, and he emailed back that he had the same ideas. The first chapter is…a parody…of….Harry Potter?

more to come.

The New Magic Numbers album is, as was the story with their last album, pretty much the best thing I’ve heard all year.

I work at a used bookstore. It’s a good job. Actually, it’s a great job. I love what I do. Even though I have to wade though the muck most days (picture some spinster bringing in 500 romance novels that have been sitting in her attic for twenty years), it’s worth it to spot that copy of Ellman’s Joyce bio that I can hold for a co-worker and fellow Joycean.

So today I see the first copy of James Patterson’s 54th novel released this year, and I think (not for the first time), what is wrong with people? Why does the public at large shoot for the lowesr common denominator. Most likely, standing at the top of the New York Times bestseller list next week will be s book whose chapters can be read in an average of 45 seconds. In the same buy came the new Stephen King novel, blurbed by Michael Chabon. I don’rt know what to think about that either.

Then, I realized, well shit, I a week Mr. Pynchon will be delivering a three pound bomb to my doorstep, and that righted things a little. Can you imagine how buff I will be after carrying it around for a few weeks?

Seriously….James Patterson…at least when Tom Clancy farmed out his leftovers he had the decency to go straight to paperback.