#boneclocks

[robyn-weightman]

It's October!

Do you have a spooky reading/film list?

[erkanxarslan]

#çallıca #zaman #sandalyesi #köstekli #saat #geçmiş #zaman #time #chairback #boneclock #pasttime #tbt #erkanarslan (Gönen) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5N0OKopFmf/?igshid=1x0jqmhxps1qq

[arthurgain]

Day 251: Airplane ✈️ portrait sketch of David Mitchell, one my favorite contemporary novelists. His intricate complex worlds are amazing places to dive in, I’ve learned a lot of how close mundane and extraordinarily things can be in our lives and his books correlate pretty well with my vision of realism in fine arts. . . . . . #davidmitchell #fineart #doodle #sketchaday #gameofthrones #artoftheday #quicksketch #drawing #dailysketch #скетч #inkdrawing #dailydrawing #worldofartists #cloudatlas #boneclocks #instalikes #instaarthub #artofinstagram #скетчбук #realisticdrawing @moleskine_arts #ballpointpen #penandink #ballpoint #pendrawing #dibujo #disegno #artistshouts #sketchbook #moleskine (at Kathmandu, Nepal)

[bookhangover-co-blog]

"If you could reason with religious people, there wouldn't be any religious people." » David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks Book haul part two, I couldn't resist haha. Beer: Harpoon Brewing's UFO White #bookstagram #bookworm #books #livres #libros #booksnbooze #igbooks #igreads #vsco #vscobooks #harpoonbrewing #boneclocks #siliconvalley #booksnbrews #instabooks #bibliophile #bibliofilia

[moanarch]

@boneclocks a winning combo if I dare say so myself

[radiomortale]

PLAYLIST MAANDAG 27 MAART (WESSEL)

FATA BOOM - Nikki PALMSY - Ambulance (Mortalehit van de Week!) Nouveau Vélo - You Jolene - 1,2,3 GRAEF - Boneclocks David Douglas - Pastel Dreams Rachel Louise - Big Girls Banner. - Compass MAGNETIC SPACEMEN - I Don't Wanna Grow Up The Muff - Addicted To Me Mexican Surf - Stay Away Figgie - Nergens Heen Moon Moon Moon - Disintegration Loop Phoam - Pure The Fiscus - Jack And Judy Mountain States - Here It Is

Terugluisteren kan hier: http://www.salto.nl/programma/radio-mortale

[robyn-weightman]

How colourful is this David Mitchell collection?

[glblctzn]

New York Times bestselling author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell, has written a new manuscript titled Me Flows What You Call Time. But here’s the catch — the book will remain unpublished and unread until 1,000 Norwegian trees come to maturity.

Mitchell’s work was commissioned by Framtidsbiblioteket, or Future Library, to serve as a time capsule for books.

More on this initiative to save trees here

[robyn-weightman]

Which ones have you read?

[pen-paws-blog]

"Even if Thatcher doesn't trigger the revolution this year ... It's coming. In our lifetimes."

[moanarch]

16, 20, 22 o:

16 : One of your favourite classical songsClair De Lune -  Claude Debussy

20 : A song that has many meanings to youDaylight - Matt & Kim

22 : A song that moves you forwardShake It Off - Taylor Swift

[emanski]

Photo linked from: the Star Tribune.

BOOKS I WAS SURPRISED TO REALIZED I OWNED #2: Arts & Entertainments, Christopher Beha

Sometimes my young son or daughter falls asleep on me when we’re on the living room couch. These impromptu naps often strand me sans TV, sans book, sans phone or anything that I’d usually use to pass the time.

I’m a child of the 70′s and 80′s, though, and still know a thing or two about having some form of fun where no obvious fun exists. So I turn to the six bookcases across the room and try to make some sort of game out of their contents.

Sometimes I look for the shelf containing the most books that I’ve read. (I think the shelf with Philip K. Dick and others is currently the leader). Or I count up the books I have that are written by women and see which shelf has the most of those.

Three years ago I realized that I had appallingly few books by women. Since then I’ve been endeavoring to correct the imbalance. Today most of my shelves are between 25 and 33 percent by women, although several are at or near 50 percent. I can do better, but the trend is positive. It’s even better when I look at books that I’ve read. Of the 12 books I’ve read in 2015, half have been by women, and the two books I’m currently reading are both by women.

Last year, 44 percent of the books I read were by women. In 2013, it was 32 percent, in 2012, 27 percent. so the trend is positive. Less promising is my record of buying/reading works by writers of Asian, African or Latino heritage, but that is perhaps a topic for a future post.

One day I searched for the writer who had the most books on my shelves, none of which I had read. The “winner” was Jonathan Lethem (0 for 10), though Graham Greene (0 for 8) was up there. I’m obviously keen on those writers or I wouldn’t have built up such a collection of their work, but for one reason or another I haven’t notched them yet. I did start The Quiet American one day, and I was enjoying it, but I was already in the middle of five other books at that time and decided not to start another.

With Lethem, I just don’t know where to start. So many of his books sound good, and they’ve all ended up getting in the way of the others. Easier to pick someone else entirely than decide on which Lethem to read first.

                                                          * * *

Each time I scan my shelves, killing time, I’m also rediscovering my book collection. This is one of my favorite things about having a large home library — I have too many books to keep track of, I can forget what I own. When I see a book on the shelf that I had forgotten, it’s almost like I’m obtaining it again for the first time.

When I’m deciding what to read next, there’s no chance that I will not find something I want. And when my kids start reading adult books, they will find their situation much the same, which pleases me. What will I do with the bluer and more violent books in my collection, when they get to the age where they start investigating our collection? That is a question I can’t yet answer.

Most people, when they see my books, say, “So you’ve read all these?” I don’t mind the question, although there was a time when it bothered me. There are certainly people who feel that the only books worth owning are the ones they’ve read, or who feel compelled to read each book they acquire, or only acquire books with the intention of reading them next. But I am not among them.

When I spotted Christopher Beha’s Arts & Entertainments in my home library recently, I felt a little shock at seeing it there. It wasn’t that I had forgotten it, not exactly; but noticing it brought back a whole string of memories, and while none of these memories is especially important to Planet Earth, they connect me to my past. I enjoy them.

Beha was at BookExpo America last year, to promote the book. I was there, and planned to stop by his signing session to pick up an ARC. The book sounded interesting to me. I’d just as soon skip the signing altogether, as I couldn’t care less about autographs. But I checked several times, and they never just put stacks out for the taking. Beha was part of the deal.

Right before his session began, though, I decided I’d had enough of BEA. If you’ve spent much time at trade fairs you probably know the sort of enough! feeling that had flooded over me after hours of confusion and overstimulation. I had to get out of there.

It was a beautiful day. I walked to Union Square from Javits, which is a fair distance even if you’re not carrying a bagful of books. I was on my way to the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, which I’d never been to although I buy stuff from them online all the time. If I thought the walk to Union Square was long, little did I remember how far it is then on to Houston Street, slightly beyond which lies the HWBC.

A principal reason I’d even gone to BEA was to get ARCs of Arts & Entertainments and David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. But there I was, sweaty and footsore, eating lunch at the Heartland Brewery, and I had lots of ARCs, but those weren’t among them. And you know how it is when you’re close to something and miss; you want it more urgently than ever — more than you ever wanted it in the first place.

I’m always on the lookout for used books. But who knew how long it would be before I saw these? Could be months, could be years. At BEA 2013 I had missed out on Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, but found an ARC at the Princeton Public Library a few months later for $1. That book had huge distribution, though; Arts & Entertainments figured to be rarer.

As it turned out, I didn’t have that long to wait. Last October, both of the used bookstores associated with the Free Library of Philadelphia had big sales. At the Book Corner, their shop around the corner from the library, sitting there as if it had been there for years, was Arts & Entertainments. (I also found a very good copy of Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests, then only out a month.) 

I thought it would be much harder to find than that. So when I saw it in on my shelf, I was remembering first the expectation of a long period of waiting, and not the unexpected success I’d had at that sale.

As for The Bone Clocks, I still haven’t seen a copy at a used bookstore, which is surprising given how many copies were sold. I wonder if the book’s heft has something to do with it: The Bone Clocks is about the heaviest book I’ve ever held for its size. Random House really wanted that book to feel important. I think maybe people are afraid to get rid of it.

I thought about buying a new copy, came very close. I’m glad I didn’t. I eventually checked it out of the library. If only I’d known back at BEA what I knew once I started The Bone Clocks; I would have left the expo even sooner. The Bone Clocks was not to my liking at all. I think I have called it the most disappointing book I’ve ever read. After Cloud Atlas, I’d had high expectations, which were not met.

And yet it’s a beautiful object, deckle edged with a pretty cover, and that solidity! When I see one available used and in good shape, I’m sure I’ll buy it, for completeness’ sake. But I doubt I’ll ever read it again. That’s another thing I think a lot of people don’t totally get about my collection. It’s about the getting, it’s about the having — and it’s about the reading too.

[stroke-the-furry-wall]

This time I whisper it, at about the violin's volume: 'I love you.' No one hears, no one sees, but the tree falls in the forest just the same.

The Bone Clocks