Graydon Carter, George Kalogerakis and Kurt Andersen, “SPY: The Funny Years”

I found an old issue of this acerbic, New York-centric magazine for a dollar and fell in love with it. Got a good deal on this hardcover from Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh!

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2006, 304 pp.
Obtained via: Copacetic
Date started: 2.10.09
Date finished: 2.30.09

What I liked: The mid-’80s seem like such a heady time to start a magazine. The economy was good, and the technology was laughably low-tech. The founding editors, Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen, are recognizable names now—Carter’s the editor of Vanity Fair, and Andersen is a novelist and the host of Studio 360. It seems like everybody who got in on the ground floor at SPY went on to do great things. Sounds like heaven.
I also loved the page scans of notorious articles, and the pranks the staff would pull using only a fax machine and moxie.
What I didn’t like: Once I finished reading, I remembered how dismal the current magazine industry is. Around 1993, the original staff had fled, and the last few years of the magazine were decidedly less funny, hence the title.
What I learned: Staying true to your ideals works for a while. But when the ride’s over, it doesn’t mean you stop moving.

Malcolm Gladwell, “Blink”

Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker, and he cracks me up.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2005, 280 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 10.12.08
Date finished: 11.10.08
What I liked: The question he asks in this book is how do we know the things we know? Why are first impressions so often, and so immediately, accurate? He explores the concept of thin-slicing—picking out the details that matter from the chaff our senses generate. The examples come from everywhere—the music industry, law enforcement, psychology, art history. Totally fascinating.
What I didn’t like: No complaints!
Oh, also: Seriously, listen to this episode of This American Life.

“The New Kings of Nonfiction,” edited by Ira Glass

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 456 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 9.2.08
Date finished: 9.14.08
What I liked: This collection of essays is absolutely top-notch. I especially loved Malcolm Gladwell’s “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” Michael Pollan’s “Power Steer” and Coco Henson Scales’ “The Hostess Diaries.”
What I didn’t like: I assumed the essays would be all recent, but some were quite old, like Susan Orlean’s “The American Man, Age Ten.” I also don’t like the fact that David Foster Wallace killed himself on the same day I read his work for the first time (“Host,” a very well-footnoted story).
What I learned: There are so many wonderful risks you can take in nonfiction writing.

Hanna Rosin, “God’s Harvard”

This Washington Post writer’s in-depth study of Patrick Henry College is one of those books that I can’t stop talking about and recommend to all of my friends.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 304 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 8.12.08
Date finished: 8.17.08
What I liked: Rosin spent a lot of time with the students of this Christian college, and she not only writes about their lives, but about the philosophies supporting the school (among them, to create the next generation of politicians for a Christian America) and the academic struggles behind the scenes.
What I didn’t like: No complaints!
What I learned: Quite a bit about baraminology.

Brian Wood, Richard Burchielli and Nathan Fox, “DMZ: Public Works”

The latest installment of the series I’ve been reading that takes place in a demilitarized Manhattan in the midst of a new civil war.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2008, 128 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 7.16.08
Date finished: 7.18.08
What I liked: This comic comes off as so much more serious after reading “Transmetropolitan” for a while. Even more depressing.
What I didn’t like: Feeling like I’d forgotten everything that happened since the last volume.
What I learned: Maybe I should start reading the individual comics rather than wait for the compilations.

Warren Ellis and Derick Robertson, “Transmetropolitan” vols. 3 through 10

The final eight volumes of the series I started zipping through earlier.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 1999 to 2004, about 144 pp each
Obtained via: Pat
Date started: 6.18.08
Date finished: 7.3.08
What I liked: The renegade journalist fighting for justice, the feisty assistants saving his ass.
What I didn’t like: The especially gory stuff.
What I learned: How it all ends.

Books I couldn’t finish

I hate giving up on books. If I make it past the first page, I almost always stick with it until the end. But this week I had to give up on two that were seriously slowing me down.

First: “The Hot Zone” by Kevin Sites. This dude’s a war correspondent for Yahoo! and this book’s a combination of reporting and memoir. I tried so hard to finish this one. I think I got past the two-thirds mark. But there was one really, really obnoxious thing I couldn’t get past. Every chapter is broken up with many, many subheads. Subheads that completely interrupt the action and jar your concentration. Don’t get me wrong—I totally love subheads; they’re great for building suspense or guiding the reader. But this is a subhead overdose: In one 15-page chapter, there are no fewer than 13 of them.

I think I know what the writer (or his editor) was trying to do. Sites is a blogger. If we make the chapters short and divide them up into four-paragraph chunks, that’s like the same thing right? Oh, no. No, it’s not. Also, I do not recommend reading this book before you go to bed.

Second: “The Woman Who Wouldn’t” by Gene Wilder. I love Gene Wilder, but I could not get past the second chapter of this novel. It’s difficult to explain why. It was already coming off as sexist, and the writing was simplistic, without any charm or nuance. Shame.

The Onion, “Embedded in America: The Onion Complete News Archives Volume 16″

All the fake news that was fit to print from October 2003 to November 2004.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2005, 320 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 3.4.08
Date finished: 3.15.08
What I liked: All the usual stuff.
What I didn’t like: No complaints.
What I learned: Learning?

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.

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!