|
With
the publishing industry currently on a downward spiral and
fiction news dominated by bloodsuckers,
we at the Hipster Book Club recognize that you're probably
not interested in reading another list about the top books
of 2008. Instead, we asked writers, musicians, and actor/director/writers
(okay, one actor/director/writer) to tell us in more general
terms about their literary 2008.
As a
result, we received lists not only about the books they read,
but the music they heard, the foods they ate, and the events
that inspired their writing. Some people submitted short one-word-per-item
lists, while others chose to go into lengthy explanations
(or, in the case of writer Tod Goldberg, chose to write a
short novella on the virtues of tasty Starbucks treats). We
hope you enjoy their contributions as much as we do.
 MATT
CARLSON
Musician, Parenthetical Girls
http://www.slendermeanssociety.com/parenthetical
TOP
FIVE BOOKS I READ IN 2008
1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Don't listen to anyone who says this book is pretentious and
unreadable; it's actually a very entertaining and moving populist
novel with a heart of refreshing and genuinely brilliant experimentalism.
Infinite Jest posits a penetrating critique of American
entertainment culture by actually being an example of how
entertainment could be.
2.
Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss
This seems like it might be kind of academic but it's more
like an intimately well-written travel diary by your most
intelligent and observant friend. It's surprisingly poetic;
for example, there is an intricately detailed seven and a
half page description of an ocean sunset.
3.
Audio-Vision by Michel Chion
Michel Chion is a French musique concrète composer
and film theorist specializing in film sound. In one of the
only English translations of his work, Audio-Vision
summarizes Chion's attempts to systematize the devices of
film sound and come up with a kind of working grammar that
can be used to "read" a film soundtrack.
4.
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Murakami's other epic is interesting because it seems to depart
from his familiar territory of "mid-30's urban male whose
relationship problems manifest themselves as metaphysical
struggle." In fact, at the beginning of the book it almost
seemed like he was struggling to find his voice writing in
first person as an adolescent boy. However, his Borgesian
surrealism works as well as ever (Talking cats and Colonel
Sanders as an actual character? Fuck yes!) and the narrative
manages to pull off a phenomenal weaving together of disparate
threads.
5.
Beyond the Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad and the Arts After
Cage by Branden Joseph
A much needed monograph on one of the most influential yet
unacknowledged American artists of the second half of the
twentieth century. Conrad was in at the ground floor of Fluxus
and happenings, was a massive voice in the birth of musical
Minimalism (he taught just intonation to La Monte Young),
played in early incarnations of the band that became the Velvet
Underground, and was a pioneer of Structural Film. Conrad's
activities have spanned discipline and approach, and Joseph
writes eloquently of how his career deliberately avoids being
easily summarized and put into the grand narrative of art
history.
 Honorable
mention to The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
CECIL CASTELLUCCI
Writer, Beige
http://www.misscecil.com
TOP
FIVE FAVORITE THINGS OF THE YEAR
The snow
skirt
I like to keep warm in winter. When I am wintering in a cold
clime, I like to keep warm. The snow skirt is functional and
fashionable, and most importantly, WARM.
Jill Barber's
CD, Chances
Beautiful voice for the gal who needs some heartfelt songs
while taking a bubble bath.
For
t-shirts and anything Gama-go,
Staunch,
Threadless,
or Go
Ape
I love t-shirts. You could call it an addiction. There is
no twelve step program to cure it, so I just buy them.
Any
book from Minx
comics (including mine, The Plain Janes and Janes
in Love)
Even though Minx the line is dead, you can still get the books.
I feel that we should support great comics for girls.
A
cow, some ducks, a beehive
Help out other people on the planet by supporting my favorite
organization, Heifer.
You buy something, like a goat or a cow, so that a family
can be self-sustaining. It helps end hunger. Do it and give
to others. You will be a hero. And being a hero is very nice.
 |
MARK HASKELL
SMITH
Writer, Salty
http:// www.markhaskellsmith.com
FIVE
FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC WHICH TURN
OUT TO BE FIVE WORDS I REALLY LIKE.
1) Mofongo
2) Presidente (beer)
3) Bachata
4) Meringue
5) Mangu
|
PAUL DEGEORGE
Musician, Harry and the Potters
http://www.harryandthepotters.com
TOP
FIVE BOOKS READ THIS YEAR
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
I finally got tired of people looking at my bookshelf, seeing
this book, gushing for two minutes, and then chiding me for
not having read it. They were all right—very, very right.
 The
Watchmen by Alan Moore
I was never into comics growing up and never really got into
the whole superhero thing. My friend Jesse, who manages a
comic shop in Boston, knew this and recommended The Watchmen.
If all superhero stories were like this, I'd never read anything
else. I'm queuing up a bunch of Alan Moore.
Blankets
by Craig Thompson
Maybe one of the most beautifully drawn graphic novels of
all time. I'm totally jealous of Menomena because they've
got Craig Thompson doing their album art.
Get
Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror,
2001–2008 by David Rees
I've been a huge fan of this strip since its inception and
was disappointed when it kind of disappeared after getting
picked up by Rolling Stone. As the title indicates,
this is truly "The Definitive Account of the War on Terror."
It's incredibly prophetic. A strip from April 2006 predicts
that "...between now and 2008 you'll actually be able to see
McCain turn into a complete fucking joke before your eyes."
It's less depressing now that Obama's been elected.
Midnight's
Children by Salman Rushdie
Wow. I was just floored by this book. Now I know why Rushdie
gets so many props. Dude can write!
Yes,
I realize that three of my top five books are graphic novels/comic
works, and of the two actual novels on the list, one is even
about comics. It was just that kind of year for me, I guess.
 EILEEN
MILES
Writer, Sorry, Tree
http://www.eileenmyles.com/
JOURNEY
THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (2008)
Dina Martina
She's a drag queen from Seattle and her abject, language rich
cabaret performance was kind of a code breaker for me. I was
living in Provincetown, MA last summer where there's the best
array of drag performances, but Dina takes the cake, is theatrical
and endlessly poetic and louche, and keeps her own counsel.
Cathy
Opie
Cathy's retrospective at the Guggenheim is stellar. Starts
off with queer art portraits from the early '90s, winds up
doing curlicues of freeways, strip malls, fog-vanished ice
houses, lesbian domiciles. She's a collector of visions.
Roberto
Bolaño
I read The Savage Detectives last summer, and slowly
I'm reading everything. I sigh with relief that someone of
my generation is down and dirty, lofty and celebrated by international
publishing. Sadly, though, he's dead.
Moving
to New York, New York, period.
I returned full time to New York this fall after a six year
hiatus. Thank fucking god. I love New York.
Jack
Kerouac Day in Reykjavik
I was invited to take part in this American/Icelandic party
at the home of Icelandic writer Olafur Gunnarsson, who is
a novelist and a translator of Kerouac. It was basically a
bunch of Icelandic writers and a few Americans lumbering around
on the porch and having a fire in the backyard,. And later
we went into the house and everyone read and played music
at the mic including some Icelandic female writers. The house
was sitting in the middle of nowhere, but an Icelandic nowhere,
and then we sat in the front room talking as the sun went
down in astonishing colors. This was in May.
 JOEL
GIBB
Musician, The Hidden Cameras
http://www.thehiddencameras.com
TOP
FIVE BOOKS READ IN 2008
1. In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain, by Andrea
Weiss
Juicy read about the infamous Mann siblings, Klaus and Erika.
Makes me want to get a hold of Erika Mann's School for
Barbarians.
2.
The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein
Scary but important to read. Klein calls out the tyrants of
our age and the system they represent.
3.
The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,
by Naomi Wolf
Another scary truth from an equally brilliant Naomi revealing
just how fascist America has become.
4.
Stuffed and Starved, by Raj Patel
Patel lays out the history and current state of the global
politics of food; amazingly researched and great storytelling.
5.
Commited, by Dan Mathew
Irreverent and inspired autobiography of a fearless activist.
1
| 2 | 3
|
