Merry Wanderer of the Night:
believer

I found today's awesome essay mostly by mistake. I went to the Believer's website to get the link for a different essay I was going to talk about, but in that time I perused other full length articles and that is how I found No Shell, Just a Ghost by David Givens (apparently there is a David Givens who is some kind of football player, it's not that one). The essay is about memory, something nonfiction writers talk about with a somewhat alarming frequency. Probably because a lot of creative nonfiction is about memories. And memories are always changing, that's what is so strange about them. My memory is so different from your memory, but who is right? Is anyone right? Can there just be multiple memories of one situation. Well, I would say there can and that it's okay, but I won't go on about that because I want you to read this essay. I've read a lot about memory, but I think this essay talks about it in a way that I haven't really seen before. He relates it to film, although that isn't exactly what makes it special. It's just the way he describes memory that stands out to me.

I'm one of those people recalls things while I'm falling asleep at night. Or sitting on the couch not thinking. Sometimes when I'm alone a memory catches me, falls into my brain even though I don't want it there. I try to shout at the memory and tell it to go away, please, I'm trying to forget about you. But it comes back no matter what. I think Givens describes this phenomenon and the phenomenon of memory very well. Here is an excerpt:

It is night now and so, finding myself unable to sleep and rummaging idly in my mind, I am given to thinking about moments such as these, taking inventory, as it were, of my life in an attempt to slow it down and hold it close. It sometimes happens that when I am too full of my present, I methodically sift through the pieces of my past. On these nights I usually lie still in bed, eyes open wide, and stare at the ceiling. There I find memories, or images more precisely, and lay them out next to one another, as though they were on a table in my mind, searching them for clues to who I’ve been and who I’ve become. Comparing memories and images in this way one can sometimes arrive at intriguing connections. That blissed-out snow reverie from my childhood, in its hypnotic fascination and brilliant optical play, was not unlike the textured and sparkling surface of the Bell + Howell tripod movie screen onto which we projected home movies throughout those same childhood days. I had the same absorbed fascination when, on those rare movie nights, I stood close to it, watching the play of light, reflections undulating across its pearlescent whiteness with every gentle adjustment of my head. All this before the images would flow.

If you enjoyed that excerpt, and I really hope you did, then I would advise you to go to the Believer's website and read the whole essay online. The first two lines of this excerpt just left me breathless and the essay gets increasingly strange and fuzzy as it goes on, like a memory.

Also, I've heard from a few people that there might be some interest in turning this into a meme? If you are interested in talking about an essay you enjoyed on Saturday please let me know in either the comments section or email me at englishmajorjunkfood AT yahoo DOT com. I'd love to spread more awesome essays around the world!

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt

is the second volume of Nick Hornby's columns for The Believer. I recently reviewed the first volume, The Polysyllabic Spree, but these books can be read in any order you like. The columns list what Hornby has read, what books he has purchased, and what he thought about everything. I mentioned in my last review that Hornby isn't allowed to say negative things about a book because it is Believer policy. This is kind of annoying but I guess one plus side is that you can only come away from this book with at least mediocre recommendations.

One thing that still amazes me about Hornby's column is that the stuff he reads is really nothing like the stuff he writes. It seems like Hornby has a real thing for mysteries and if you've ever read a Hornby book you know there really isn't a whole lot of mystery to them. That being said, I think I liked Housekeeping vs. the Dirt much more than The Polysyllabic Spree as far as book recommendations go. From this book I found Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan, Early Bird by Rodney Rothman, Saturday by Ian McEwan (or really just anything by Ian McEwan, this book reminded me I've yet to read him), In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (which I did read), The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler, and Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (which I bought). So as you can see, that is quite a few more than the three books I came away from The Polysyllabic Spree wanting to read. He also talks about Persepolis and includes a selection from it, and since I really like that book the recommendation made me like this book even more.

I also really enjoyed the first few columns where Hornby references books that make you walk into a lamppost because they are so gripping. When I read this I had just finished Envy, which was a book that gripped me in such a way. I think in this volume Hornby really gets a good stride with his column, and he carries ideas through columns more. This is something you might not notice as much when you read each column individually as the new issue of The Believer comes out, but when you read them altogether you see how he brings back old ideas.

Loved this book, I give it an A.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I have been obsessed with Nick Hornby since I was fifteen years old. High Fidelity was one of my favorite books in high school, and when my English teacher saw me toting other Hornby books around he asked me if I read Hornby's column in the Believer. I had never even heard of The Believer before but luckily he had a few issues on hand for me to read. I gobbled up the columns he did have and was hungry for more. Anyone who reads the Believer knows how expensive it is though, so it wasn't until last year that I got a subscription and at the point I did, Hornby was no longer writing his column (this has recently changed). Along with my Believer subscription I got Hornby's three collections The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt, and Shakespeare Wrote For Money. I've read The Polysyllabic Spree

and I am pleased.

The column is about what books he has purchased and what books he has read- the two lists always completely opposite in length. Like most book lovers, Hornby buys more books than he reads. The first column from September 2003 shows him buying 10 books and reading 6. Been there, done that. Some months it's much worse and some months it's much better. It was really interesting for me to read this book as a blogger, because he talks about some things, like abandoning books, that I see in a much different way since I've become a blogger. In addition to his thoughts on what he has read and what he has bought sometimes there are excerpts from books he really enjoyed thrown in.

I haven't read, or heard, of most of the books Hornby is reading, but that just shows that this book is really great because I enjoyed reading about all of them anyway. I did come away with a few recommendations. For instance, I need to read the remaining Salinger books, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Mystic River. My one complaint about the column is that Hornby isn't allowed to say anything really bad about books. If he really hated a book he can't even mention the title. I think this is a bit unfair, you can dislike a book and give an explanation why you didn't like it. It might work for someone else who doesn't care about your reasons.

I give this an A.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.