February 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, over two months since I cracked it open, I finally finished Doctor Zhivago. It was a long read – mostly beautiful, occasionally frustrating, and above all definitely worth the effort.

Now I am reading short fiction, to help reset my brain. Currently I am working my way through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966, which, in addition to being full of superb short prose and poetry, is an interesting time-capsule of the state of literature almost seventy years ago.

Acquisitions

The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste Speculative Science Fiction

  1. R.T. Samuel, Rakesh K., Rashmi R.D. (editors), The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF (Blaft Publications)

Reading List

Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak

Books

  1. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago [2025.02.14]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “Kitemaster” (Patreon post) [2025.02.11]
  2. Samuel Beckett, “Dante and the Lobster”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  3. Jack Kerouac, “October in the Railroad Earth”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  4. Patsy Southgate, “A Very Important Lady”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.16] – [Note: I could find almost no information at all on Patsy Southgate online. Anything I found was as a side note to other writers and creative types. The two obituaries I could find, from 1998, were behind paywalls. Perhaps I will gather some sources and put together a Wikipedia page.]
  5. Kameron Hurley, “At the Crossroads of Many Futures” (Patreon post) [2025.02.16]
  6. Tobias S. Buckell, “The Last Cathedral of Earth, In Flight” (Patreon post) [2025.02.17]
  7. Alexander Trocchi, “From Cain’s Book“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  8. John Rechy, “From City of Night“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  9. William Eastlake, “Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-Six Horses”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  10. Carlos Fuentes (Lysander Kemp, translator), “The Life Line”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.21]
  11. Juan Rulfo (Lysander Kemp, translator), “From Pedro Páramo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.22]
  12. Octavio Paz, “Todos Santos, Día de Muertos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  13. Henry Miller, “Defense of the Freedom to Read”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  14. William Eastlake, “Three Heroes and a Clown”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  15. Terry Southern, “Red-Dirt Marihuana”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  16. William S. Burroughs, “Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  17. Eugène Ionesco, “Foursome”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  18. Martin Williams, “Charlie Parker: The Burden of Innovation”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.28]

Weekly Round-up, February 22, 2025

John Winkelman

The ears of an orange cat visible over a rumpled pile of bed covers, also orange. In the background a window through which snow-covered houses are visible.

[Pepper, hiding.]

I am in the middle of another insane work week, so light updates here.

Reading

The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966. Amazing stuff here.

Writing

Code. Lots of code.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Colonization, Fae
Setting: Mountains
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Hannah Waddingham and Brendan Hunt singing the B-52’s “Love Shack” This video will live in my head, rent-free, FOREVER!

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, February 15, 2025

John Winkelman

A trail of cat footprints in a light covering of snow.

[A trail of cat footprints in a light covering of snow.]

This past week was hectic, but not overwhelming. We are already making plans for ConFusion 2026, and I am excited to be part of that process. ConFusion 2025 was a tremendous experience and I am grateful that we are able to keep that momentum up as we plan for next year.

Reading

I finally finished Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. In any other year I would have completed it sometime around the holidays, but surviving in a cyberpunk dystopia takes a lot of mental energy, and is quite psychologically draining. And classic Russian literature requires a lot of focus and attention to detail.

Immediately upon closing the Pasternak, I opened The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957-1966. I believe I picked this book up as a remainder when I worked at Schuler Books & Music back in the mid-1990s. So this book has been in my possession for between 25 and 30 years. And now I am finally reading it. The first two short stories therein are by Samuel Beckett and Jack Kerouac.

Writing

While at Monumental ConFusion a couple of weeks ago, my partner bought me an unlined journal with paper thick enough to allow me to use a fountain pen without bleed-through or blotching. I have written a couple of poems in it, one a sort of “welcome to the journal” piece, and the other a response to finishing Doctor Zhivago here in the mid-21st century. Feels good to have my head in that space again.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Environment, Precursors
Setting: Frontier
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

“Careless Whisper” by Wham!

While looking for a song to include in this post, I found a list of the top 40 songs of this date 40 years ago. “Careless Whisper” was at the top of an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING collection of music. 1985 was a hell of a year to be a teenager listening to the radio.

Interesting Links

 

Weekly Round-up, February 8, 2025

John Winkelman

For the first time in many months, I had a week which wasn’t particularly busy. Or rather, not busy by my usual standards. And I celebrated by being completely brain-dead for the entire week. I managed to accomplish what work was sent my way, and I attended all of the martial arts classes as usual, but other than when working out, I spent the entire week on autopilot.

Reading

I made minimal progress in Doctor Zhivago, due to my brain simply not working. And also by sleeping through what is usually my reading time in the mornings. I really shouldn’t let myself get so exhausted.

Writing

I barely even wrote in my journal this week, though I plan to ramp that up significantly, if for no other reason than that between the tidal wave of LLM-generated content, and the capture of all of the online platforms by billionaire fascists of various flavors, handwritten creative work is the only writing which is guaranteed to be “real.”

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Super Powers, Precursors
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: War

Listening

“I Hate You” by Kirk Thatcher and his band The Edge of Etiquette. Recorded for That Scene in Star Trek IV.

Weekly Round-up, February 1, 2025

John Winkelman

I am back home and in blissed-put recovery mode after four days of Monumental ConFusion. I will post a write-up in the near future.

Reading

I finished Speculative Whiteness, and am in the final stretch of Doctor Zhivago. Zhivago has been a very long project, due in large part to chaos in my day job and also chaos in the world at large. Concentration and focus have been in very short supply this year.

Writing

My brain is recovering from the past three months of *gestures at everything*, so not much writing this week.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Undead, Genius Loci
Setting: Library
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Marianne Faithfull and The Chieftains, “Love is Teasin'”, from the magnificent album The Long Black Veil.

Faithfull died this past Thursday, after a long, difficult, and beautiful life.

Interesting Links

January 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

January was a good month for acquisition, but not a good month for reading.

Acquisitions

Books I acquired in January 2025.

  1. Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Connor (editors), The Map of Lost Places (Apex Book Company) [2025.01.14]
  2. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken (Wraithmarked Creative, LLC) [2025.01.15]
  3. Stephen Leigh, A Fading Sun [2025.01.24]- A gift from the author, received at ConFusion 2025 (inscribed)
  4. Stephen Leigh, A Rising Moon [2025.01.24] – A gift from the author, along with the previous books, received at ConFusion 2025. (inscribed)
  5. J.D. Barker and Christine Daigle, Heavy are the Stones (Hampton Creek Press) [2025.01.25] – Received as part of an ARC giveaway, by the authors, to the attendees of ConFusion 2025.
  6. Brandon Butler (editor), The Science Fiction Tarot (tdotSpec, Inc) [2025.01.25] – An anthology created for a Kickstarter campaign. I picked this up at ConFusion 2025, where Storm Humbert, one of the anthology contributors, had copies for sale. (inscribed)

Reading List

Books

  1. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness [2025.01.27]

Weekly Round-up, January 25, 2025

John Winkelman

The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025. A parking lot, a frozen pond, and several roads are visible, as well as various evergreen and deciduous trees.

[The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025.]

This will be a brief update, as I am at Monumental ConFusion for the weekend.

Reading

With the crazy project finally mostly wrapped up, I finally have time and – more importantly – mental energy to dive back into reading. I am bouncing back and forth between Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, where I am well past the halfway point, and Jordan S. Carroll’s Speculative Whiteness, which is a short but infuriating read, though now that I am well past the halfway point it is becoming amusing. The alt-right, in all their various facets, are a bunch of pathetic losers.

Writing

Not much writing happening right now, thanks to the afore-mentioned Crazy Project.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Empire, Genius Loci
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Dystopian

Listening

“Father & Son” by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens. My partner and I have been watching Ted Lasso, with is remarkable and joyous, and the final scene of the final episode featured this song.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, January 18, 2025

John Winkelman

A sprig of purple kale peeking out of a pile of snow.

[A sprig of decorative purple kale peeking out of a pile of snow just outside of Martha’s Vineyard in Grand Rapids, Michigan.]

Another week in the hopper, and I am exhausted. This week I worked 51 hours and managed to avoid missing the evening classes by logging in between 6 and 7:00 in the morning. But we have two more days to go, though I am sure the project leads would love for me to work through this three-day weekend, that just ain’t gonna happen.

The next blog post – indeed, the next couple of hundred blog posts – will be sent from the newly-formed Fascist States of America, headed by several billionaires stuffed in a sagging, ugly, shit-stained Donald Trump costume.

This state of affairs became inevitable when the Supreme Court passed Citizens United, which codified into law the idea that money is exactly the same as speech, and that the richer a person (or corporation) was, the more deserving of free speech they were. It is no coincidence that these billionaire broligarchs consider themselves “free speech absolutists”, but only when it comes to the dissemination of white supremacist and other forms of hate speech. Note how quickly they close down any criticisms of themselves on their own platforms.

So in that sense, Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and the other wealthy media outlet owners are the most cowardly men on the planet. They have gone to astonishing lengths to build up enough wealth to not only shield themselves from the consequences of any of their actions, but also to shut down most avenues of criticism of them and the members of their cohort. They are the living embodiment of Wilhoit’s Law: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

Reading

I have passed the halfway point of Doctor Zhivago, but it is still slow going. Maybe the long weekend will afford me time to get in some pages.

Writing

I am giving up on writing anything substantial until February. This month has been a total wash.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Artificial Intelligence, Cryptids
Setting: Ruins
Genre: War

Listening

Aphex Twin, “On”

Interesting Links

  • With the annual State of the World address wrapped up, a new conversation is ongoing at The Well: “State of the News 2025“
  • Have a couple of decades to kill? browse the Magazine Rack at the Internet Archive.

Weekly Round-up, January 11, 2025

John Winkelman

The Grand River, as seen at sunset from the Bridge Street bridge.

[The Grand River, as seen at sunset from the Bridge Street bridge.]

Another week gone, consumed by the crazy work project. The end is nigh, but it is a combination of an abrupt cliff and a brick wall toward which we are racing headlong. So kind of like life in general.

I am winding down my interactions with Facebook, as Zuck has joined Musk in licking MAGA boots, so Facebook will not stop even the pretense that it isn’t a Nazi bar. Thus it joins Twitter/X, Gab, Rumble, and Truth Social as a safe space for fascists.

Most of my social media presence will now be on BlueSky (until it, too, follows Xitter into the shitter) and Mastodon, which has so far mostly avoided the problem of being owned by billionaire tech bros. We will see how that plays out in the next four years.

Reading

I have finally reached the halfway point of Doctor Zhivago, a month later than I originally expected. It is very, very good.

Writing

While sitting at a cafe yesterday morning before work I knocked out a rough draft of a poem about the Los Angeles wildfires. I might leave it at that, as the subject is so fucking depressing.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Empire, Aliens
Setting: Bar
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” has been bouncing around my head lately, for no particular reason, other than that, fifty-five years later, it is still a hell of a song.

Interesting Links

IWSG, January 2025: Pedestals

John Winkelman

The first week of 2025 has been…okay. I planned out some writing projects for the first few months of the year, but so far I haven’t had a chance to write. Work, ConFusion 2025 prep, and general burnout are using up all of my time and energy right now. Thus the meandering tone of this month’s IWSG update.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for January 2025 is: Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

I have been pondering this for a while. From the vantage point of my mid-fifties, looking back, I don’t remember really admiring anyone. As a child I loved my family, of course, and thought various people were “cool”, but isolated on that small farm and attending that small school in that small town, I don’t think I found anyone to admire simply because I had no context for what was “admirable.” I don’t think I would have even known what that word meant.

So forty years on, I can look back on the people from my childhood and say “this person was a good person, and worthy of respect.” Famous real people, living or dead, came to us filtered through the TV or radio, and so politicians and war heroes were no more tangible than super heroes or the characters in, say, Miami Vice. General Patton, John Rambo, and Captain America occupied the same ontological space. What does “not real” mean to a sleep-deprived 13-year-old who is milking cows at 6 am the morning after watching Return of the Jedi?

So as a child, the people I looked up to or wanted to emulate, however briefly, were characters from movies or TV or books.  Real people were just too…real.

 

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