Tag: Antonio Machado

December 2023 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

Despite my best efforts, I didn’t manage to read more books than I acquired this year. But my acquiring was wonderful, and so was the reading.

Acquisitions

Reading material acquired in December 2023

  1. New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine 1.1 (Fall 2023) [2023.12.06] – Excellent magazine from a Kickstarter I backed a while ago. I am really looking forward to reading this.
  2. New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine 1.2 (Fall 2023) [2023.12.06]
  3. Manya Wilkinson, Lublin (And Other Stories) [2023.12.18]
  4. Jonathan Maberry (editor), The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny (Outland Entertainment) [2023.12.20]
  5. Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Olha Brylova, Iryna Pasko (editors), Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine & the Diaspora (Atthis Arts) [2023.12.21]

Reading List

Books

What I read in December 2023

  1. Antonio Machado, Fields of Castile [2023.12.12]
  2. Min Jin Lee, Pachinko [2023.12.16]

Weekly Round-up, December 9, 2023

John Winkelman

Hello. This is me trying to get back into the habit of weekly blog posts about goings-on in my life. We will see how long it lasts, and how my intentions endure the slings and arrows of *gestures at everything*.

***

I have been thinking about Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, and also about Frank Wilhoit’s quote about capitalism.

Ashby’s law states, more or less, that in any control system, the control apparatus must be able to account for (e.g. be as complex as) all possible variants in the system being controlled.

Wilhoit’s quote is as follows: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

There is some resonance between these ideas which I have been exploring in my (almost non-existent) downtime, and I will post updates to these thoughts as they crystalize.

***

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, and I have logged my eighth win out of eleven attempts, I feel like I have the energy to continue writing. In past years that has not been the case for many and varied reasons, but this year, though I am well into my mid fifties, I have energy reserves which were simply not there in years past. So I will take advantage of that.

Writing, be it creative, work-related, keeping a journal, or blogging, is a habit which requires practice and maintenance. And when pulling out of a slump, there are two parts to restarting the practice: getting out of the habit of not doing the thing, and getting into the habit of doing the thing.

***

Currently reading: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Fields of Castile by Antonio Machado, Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

***

The writing prompt for the past week was:

Subject: Undead, Addiction
Setting: Ship
Genre: Magic Realism

I didn’t do much with this one, other than to come up with a few interesting scenarios during my walks to and from work.

The writing prompt for the next week is:

Subject: Addiction, Artificial Intelligence
Setting: Border Town
Genre: War

***

Random links for the week:

 

 

October 2023 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

October was an excellent month for books, thanks primarily to me having a couple of weeks off from work to rest and recover and read and visit bookstores. I didn’t read as much as I would have liked, due to overall burnout, but again, what my reading list lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality.

Acquisitions

Books acquired in the month of October 2023

  1. Jean Daive (Rosmarie Waldrop, translator), Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan (City Lights Books) [2023.10.03] – Purchased at The Book Nook& Java Shop in Montague, Michigan. This was a spur-of-the-moment purchase. I saw the City Lights logo and pulled the book down, opened it to a random couple of pages, and immediately became obsessed. It’s not often that I read a book in the same month that I purchase it.
  2. Elmore Leonard, When the Women Come Out to Dance [2023.10.06] – Purchased at Argos Books and Comics in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I recently read Get Shorty, because the movie version is one of my all-time favorites. This collection contains the short story “Fire in the Hole,” which is the basis for the TV series Justified, which is very good.
  3. R.F. Kuang, Babel [2023.10.06] – Purchased at Books & Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I read Kuang’s Yellowface a few weeks back and quite enjoyed it. This one has been on my TBR list for some time, so I when I saw it at Books & Mortar, I grabbed a copy.
  4. Jim C. Hines, Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens (self-published) – This is the reward for Hines’ latest Kickstarter.
  5. Antonio Machado (Stanley Appelbaum, translator), Fields of Castile/Campos de Castilla [2023.10.15] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A few months ago, after looking up interviews with Cormac McCarthy, YouTube began suggesting clips from a movie called The Counsellor. I had never heard of it, but it looked intriguing. The first clip I watched was from the end of the movie, and consisted of a conversation between Michael Fassbender and Rubén Blades. It was a powerful scene and the poetry of Machado figured prominently. I watched a few more scenes from the movie, enough to realize that (a) I really need to see it, and (b) I need to be in the right frame of mind because it is VERY dark. So I have not yet seen the movie but I do have some Machado to read in the meantime.
  6. Paul Celan (John Felstiner, translator), Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan [2023.10.15] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I ordered this after reading about fifty pages of Under the Dome. I knew Celan’s name, but nothing more. I am very much looking forward to reading this one.
  7. Jean Daive (Norma Cole, translator), A Woman With Several Lives (La Presse) [2023.10.23] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Also purchased after reading a few dozen pages of Under the Dome. Also looking forward to reading it.
  8. Marosia Castaldi (Jamie Richards, translator), The Hunger of Women (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
  9. Michele Mari (Brian Robert Moore, translator), Verdigris (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
  10. Lutz Seiler (Martyn Crucefix, translator), In Case of Loss (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.

Reading List

Books I read in the month of October 2023

Books

  1. Shawn Speakman, The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey [2023.10.02]
  2. Olga Tokarczuk (Antonia Lloyd-Jones, translator), Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead [2023.10.17]
  3. Jean Daive (Rosmarie Waldrop, translator), Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan [2023.10.18]
  4. Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle (editors), Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia [2023.10.26]

Short Prose

  1. Jennifer Fliss, “Ijo de Ken Sos Tu?”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.18]
  2. Simo Srinivas, “The Girls of St. X”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
  3. Jo Kaplan, “Humanities 215”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
  4. Amber Chen, “Hugging the Buddha’s Feet”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
  5. Cyrus Amelia Fisher, “In Vast and Fecund Reaches We Will Meet Again”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
  6. John Langan, “Applicatio”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
  7. Steve Rasnic Tem, “Higher Powers”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
  8. Michael A. Reed, “Twisted Tongues”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
  9. Brian Evenson, “The Allard Residency”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
  10. Hussani Abdulrahim, “The Library Virus”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
  11. R.B. Lemberg, “The Occupation of the Migratory Library of Oanno”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
  12. Gabino Iglesias, “Tiny Hearts in the Dark”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
  13. Ana Hurtado, “Parásito”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
  14. Suzan Palumbo, “The Davinci Chip”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
  15. Ayida Shonibar, “An Inordinate Amount of Interest”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
  16. Premee Mohamed, “Preservation of an Intact Specimen”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
  17. Octavia Cade, “Those Shining Things Are Out of Reach”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
  18. Marisca Pichette, “Her Finished Wings”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]
  19. R.J. Joseph, “Those Who Teach Pay Knowledge Forward”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]