My first son was born this year 1980, and so were several favorite novels: Housekeeping of course (good film); The Name of the Rose because my history, anthropology, and art history background allowed me to digest an otherwise difficult novel (the film is good too); Desai, Welty, and Sagan. Among my least favorites: Clan of the Cave Bear, a mashup of every crackpot and discarded theory (she had a beach house a half mile south of ours; turned off the film); Disgrace, which has haunted me every since as a story I never wanted in my head (horrified all over again to discover later that the author is White); and Confederacy of Dunces which offended me by its humor since I have a schizophrenic in-law. Yes, as you say, a miserable backstory. Not funny to me.
Wonderful. You may have read others under "my list" but they're all good. Maxwell and Carr are musts, then Silber [which is less known] . . . I await your report!
Coming from you that's a really fine thing to hear [well, you know, from anyone, but ESPECIALLY from you]. Jan Priddy reminded me that DAZZLE OF DAY should've gone in the cli-fi post . . . then she said, well, maybe it wasn't strictly cli-fi (??). I'll probably start collecting more titles for a [2] . . . The BIRTH YEAR PROJECT posts are getting more and more involved--the early ones look pretty naked now. The stat machine here at Substack says a minuscule percent of readers open links, but if this is going to be a decent resource I have to do the poking about. Anyway, I'm learning a lot. In the next little while I'm going to post a Reading Project on Persephone Books--you should check out their catalog if you don't know it. All these worthy books that would otherwise be drifting away on ice floes . . .
My birth year has so man great titles! Housekeeping and A Confederacy of Dunces rank high in my memorable reading experiences... Looking forward to reading more from the list, and will report back soon!
Well, I guess I figured nobody could be older than I am. However, in point of fact, there's no cutoff point. I'd be happy to do your year. Usually takes about a week or so, depending on what else is shaking.
I love your posts, David. Love the lists, the craft talk, the book talk, all of it. Thank you for all the time you put in on it. I save many of the craft posts to share with my students, and I’ve added many books to my own TBR pile.
My first son was born this year 1980, and so were several favorite novels: Housekeeping of course (good film); The Name of the Rose because my history, anthropology, and art history background allowed me to digest an otherwise difficult novel (the film is good too); Desai, Welty, and Sagan. Among my least favorites: Clan of the Cave Bear, a mashup of every crackpot and discarded theory (she had a beach house a half mile south of ours; turned off the film); Disgrace, which has haunted me every since as a story I never wanted in my head (horrified all over again to discover later that the author is White); and Confederacy of Dunces which offended me by its humor since I have a schizophrenic in-law. Yes, as you say, a miserable backstory. Not funny to me.
Wonderful. You may have read others under "my list" but they're all good. Maxwell and Carr are musts, then Silber [which is less known] . . . I await your report!
Coming from you that's a really fine thing to hear [well, you know, from anyone, but ESPECIALLY from you]. Jan Priddy reminded me that DAZZLE OF DAY should've gone in the cli-fi post . . . then she said, well, maybe it wasn't strictly cli-fi (??). I'll probably start collecting more titles for a [2] . . . The BIRTH YEAR PROJECT posts are getting more and more involved--the early ones look pretty naked now. The stat machine here at Substack says a minuscule percent of readers open links, but if this is going to be a decent resource I have to do the poking about. Anyway, I'm learning a lot. In the next little while I'm going to post a Reading Project on Persephone Books--you should check out their catalog if you don't know it. All these worthy books that would otherwise be drifting away on ice floes . . .
My birth year has so man great titles! Housekeeping and A Confederacy of Dunces rank high in my memorable reading experiences... Looking forward to reading more from the list, and will report back soon!
Looks like you haven't gone as far back as my ancient birthday, 1944.
Well, I guess I figured nobody could be older than I am. However, in point of fact, there's no cutoff point. I'd be happy to do your year. Usually takes about a week or so, depending on what else is shaking.
I love your posts, David. Love the lists, the craft talk, the book talk, all of it. Thank you for all the time you put in on it. I save many of the craft posts to share with my students, and I’ve added many books to my own TBR pile.
I loved Confederacy of Dunces when I read it in undergrad (not an assignment), but I wonder what I’d think of it now.
One way to find out . . .
Yup!