Quick question: Is Chuck Klosterman the accompanist on Glee? IMDB says it’s some guy named Brad, but I’m pretty certain the show could stop at any second and we’ll all learn about how Steely Dan and the Dallas Mavericks are connected through one episode of The Price is Right. In the end, he’ll relate the baby mama drama back to America’s obsession with puppets and then leave for Japan where everything is more relevant. Guess we’ll see after the kids pretend to be in Grease..

#46: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

Finally finished this series because a friend smuggled it back from Europe. Hooray! It wrapped up a very long story line in the form of miraculous medical recoveries, exciting courtroom drama, and political conspiracy. One of the things I’ve found interesting about the series as a whole though is that although the plot changes, the characters don’t exhibit redemption or a shift in personality. They pretty much stay the same throughput the three books, which isn’t so bad, just unexpected. I liked the ending here with all the legal battles (I’ve always wanted to be on a Grisham-style jury), which was fun to read but when the characters got emotional, I didn’t believe it. They tend to always be slightly standoff-ish even when they’re supposed to be in love, or in pain, or just generally freaking out. Maybe that’s a cultural or translation thing, I don’t know. Either way, as a crime novels go this whole series is pretty top notch - thrilling, suspenseful, and eerie to the core.

Side note: This weekend I got my hands on the orginal Sweedish movie of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It is creepy as all get out and not recommended for those with weak stomachs.

If you give a girl an H1N1 vaccine, she deserves a cookie… even if she has to make it herself. 

David Sedaris is now on vinyl:

The 31-minute album, which will be released on Jan. 5 and cost $24.98, will include only two of the five essays on the CD version of the audiobook, but will feature a code enabling purchasers to digitally download the entire program.

…

Maja Thomas, senior vice president for digital and audio publishing at the Hachette Book Group, said she was drawn to the idea precisely because it was quirky. Mr. Sedaris’s “audience is very attuned to irony and is going to find this funny,” Ms. Thomas said.

Whhhaaaatttt??? That’s some pretty expensive irony! (via NYTimes)

#45: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

And Murakami does it again. For the life of me, I will NEVER understand how someone can come up with such intricate and imaginative plot lines. Wind-Up Bird kind of wound me up in its convoluted characters, leaving me unsure of what I had actually read. Even now, I think I know what happened and simultaneously wonder what it was all about. But what I love most about Murakami, and particularly this book, was that even though I felt left in the dark at times I knew that I was in good hands. Being vulnerable in a book is, without a doubt, a very strange feeling. On the other hand, the suspense that Murakami left for me was a comfort. Almost as if being moved along a very long highway, the story kept me moving forward without once feeling the need to look back.

Essentially, one could quote the hell out of this book or take it as a whole. It’s one that can easily be broken down, but I prefer to think of it as the sum of its many parts. There’s a lot to grasp here and I’m sure I’ll be looking into it, but in the meantime I think I’ll let the idea of it all settle a bit. Wind-Up Bird begs to be taken seriously, so if you’re in the mood to work a little or be dragged into a completely different world, give this book a go.

 #44: 33 1/3, Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti

As promised, I read another 33 1/3 on today’s flight between Texas and New York. There is something to be said for absorbing this kind of album while flying over the general midwest, but when I was trying to understand the breakdown of each individual song, I realized it was a futile effort at best. This book tried with all its might to bring Dylan history into the music. It took each beat and brought to the accompanying lyrics a sense of wonderment that I’m not sure Dylan himself would have understood. In fact, I’ve come to the possibly presumptuous and probably ill-informed opinion that the prolific myth behind Highway 61 Revisited is not only something in which we want to believe, but a thrill that brings us to others who want feel the same. Basically, I wonder if my decision to focus on this album while feeling as if I had two directions home rendered the entire experience moot. While Dylan may have wanted the listener to feel lost, or at least to identify with his own confusion, I found it incredibly comforting to know that my birthplace and current residence can always be revisited. And revisit them I will, again and again.