Maxim Biller, “Love Today”

Found this “translated from the German” advance copy at work. “Love Today” is basically a more depressing, more Teutonic “Modern Love.”

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2008, 216 pp.
Obtained via: Work
Date started: 2.20.08
Date finished: 2.24.08
What I liked: Biller very effectively creates a little world in each short story, which is generally less than six pages long. Most stories take place in a central or eastern European place, with characters that are Jewish or German or otherwise European. They are very melancholy and go down easy.
What I didn’t like: This ish is depressing. This might be the first time I’ve read a book that didn’t make me smile or laugh at all. I guess I’m of the school of “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”
What I learned: You can still tell writing is German after it’s translated.

Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, “DMZ: public works”

Volume three of the series I’ve been reading. In installments 11-15, Matty infiltrates Trustwell, the security contractor hired by the US government to keep Manhattan in one piece. (Blackwater, anybody?)

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2006, 260 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 2.15.08
Date finished: 2.15.08
What I liked: As usual, the story line seems totally plausible, and the action is perfectly paced.
What I didn’t like: That I’m going to have to wait until mid-March to read the fourth installment. (Or buy all the single issues.)
What I learned: Don’t read this ish before going to bed, man.

Shalom Auslander, “Foreskin’s Lament”

Shalom Auslander writes about his experience growing up in an orthodox Jewish household and the fear of god it instilled in him.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 312 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 2.11.08
Date finished: 2.15.08
What I liked: This book was hilarious. I really like how the narration jumped back and forth between Shalom’s formative years and his adult years. I also liked the straightforward prose. A lot of times it read like a “what I did on my summer vacation” kind of essay, which really worked in the parts where he wrote about his childhood.
What I didn’t like: No complaints, really. (I just wish I could remember where I read chunks of his work before… I know I read an essay about his rabbi at school yelling “name of the creator” at him any time he wrote his name [which is one of the many for god] and another about him and his wife walking 14 miles to Manhattan to watch a Rangers game on the sabbath. New York Times? New Yorker? No idea.)
What I learned: A lot about Jewish customs.

Mark Ovenden, “Transit Maps of the World”

This might win the prize for nerdiest book I’ve ever read.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 144 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 2.6.08
Date finished: 2.11.08
What I liked: This book is a collection of maps for practically every metro system in the world. (Metro being defined as mostly underground urban public transportation.) It compares historical and modern-day system maps and describes the evolution of each system. The book is divided into “zones” based on complexity and historical significance of the system. Insane.
What I didn’t like: Ovenden judges all the system maps against the gold standard: the landmark London tube map. I agree that the London tube map is iconic and a wonder of the design world, but judging the quality of a system map by whether it has standardized 45-degree angles and dodged geography for straightened-out paths says little about how effective the map is for locals and whether it’s good design. For example, the Mexico City map on page 60 breaks a lot of his “rules”—but it’s an absolutely charming map that is still totally useable.
Also, Ovenden remarks four times (by my count) how similar the system maps of Asian cities are to a Chinese/Japanese/Korean character. Yes, they are squiggly lines—but they don’t look that much like kanji.
What I learned: Moscow’s underground stations are a tourist attraction in their own right. A lot about map legibility.

Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, “DMZ: body of a journalist”

Next volume of the series I started reading last month.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 168 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 2.5.08
Date finished: 2.5.08
What I liked: These stories reveal more details about the origins of the war and the environment in in the demilitarized Manhattan.
What I didn’t like: No complaints.
What I learned: That third volume better arrive at the library soon!

Ben Katchor, “Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories”

A collection of weekly comics by this guy.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 1996, 112 pp.
Obtained via: Half Price Books
Date started: 1.18.08
Date finished: 2.2.08
What I liked: These strips are so dense and surprising and absurd… eight-frame vignettes about a city full of people with strange occupations.
What I didn’t like: Nothing in particular.
What I learned: It takes a lot of skill to be this goofy.