70 Books

For Omaha locals, you should check out The Blue Flamingo if you haven’t. Paperbacks are 25 cents, hardbacks are 50. Picked these up today before the snow reappeared. 

#14: McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales: Edited by Michael Chabon

Shockingly enough, I didn’t really enjoy this anthology of “thrilling” tales. They were not the least bit thrilling. I honestly don’t understand why I didn’t love this. The perfect recipe was there: published by McSweeney’s, incredible writers like Aimee Bender, Dave Eggers and Neil Gaiman, and kick ass artwork meant to look like a vintage comic book. But I literally did not enjoy a single story of the 20 included. Maybe I am dead inside.

#65: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Why did I just now read this? It’s been sitting on my shelf with the other Hornby books that I’ve read, ignored and lonely, for years. Anyway, despite the fact that this book is about suicide, it’s not depressing in the least. Hornby has this really dark sense of humor that works really well with topics that are definitely not light and fun, and he’s pretty incredible at making me laugh at sad things. I was also really impressed with his ability to switch so easily into the voices of different characters, from the point of view of a teenage girl to a middle aged man. Hornby is good stuff.

How many times do you think I accidentally wrote “horny” instead of “hornby” and had to backspace it? Every single time I tried to type his name. Nick Horny.