I spend a lot of time writing about writing, but I don’t say very much about reading.  Since the line between what we write and read is always very thin, I think I should remedy that.  I’m planning a “creative writer’s reader response” post sometime soon.  For now, I think it would be fun to post something like an annotated bibliography of current reads.

Websites & Blogs: Here is a short list of some of the things I read online.  I’m fascinated by blogs that show me something new, and I find the following sites really interesting.  The subject matter skews sharply toward my interests in architecture, civil engineering, creative writing, Asia, funerals, life-hacking, languages, and abandoned places.

  • The Forgotten City of Iram – Natasha Edgington’s image blog.
  • Bones Don’t Lie – A PhD student in anthropology who specializes in mortuary archaeology.
  • Bridgioto! – A gifted animator who isn’t afraid to show her work toward becoming a better painter.
  • Grinding.be – Articles about dystopias, architecture, and post-humanism.
  • I’ve Infused Myself with Puppy DNA – Voice-driven creative nonfiction by a gifted, if sometimes unfocused, writer.
  • Japanese Rule of 7 – Ken Seeroi’s thoughts about living in Japan as an English teacher.  Smart and often very funny.
  • My Hong Kong Husband – Multicultural marriage, Hong Kong, strange things afoot.
  • Functional Shift – Lisa Minnick is a linguistics professor and a gifted teacher.  Her thoughts on the implicit and explicit uses of English are fascinating.
  • Ribbonfarm – Venkat Rao’s writings on the relativity of perception and other interesting concepts.  Very smart guy.
  • Rune Soup – Gordon White is a funny, insightful, somewhat pissed off, chaos magician.  Reading his blog gives me story ideas and that would be reason enough, but I should note that he is clearly one of nature’s prototypes.
  • Order of the Good Death – Caitlin Doughty, licensed mortician and founder of the Order of the Good Death, a blog dedicated to fostering an intelligent discussion of death and “death theory.”
  • Things I Don’t Understand And Am Definitely Not Going To Talk About – Jen Snow’s small, highly absurd posts sometimes read like status updates and other times like well-crafted micro-fiction pieces.
  • Judecca – a webcomic by Jonathan Meecham and Noora Heikkilä about three lost souls who live on an island in one of hell’s rivers.  It’s well done.  A love story in hell.
  • Damned to Deutschland – Poems and short shorts.
  • The Witch of Forest Grove – Sarah Anne Lawless is a real-life witch / shaman as well as a very talented crafter, illustrator, and herbalist.
  • Du Fuchs – Photography and urban research in Tokyo.
  • Life in Russia – Traveling through post-Soviet spaces.

Books: What am I reading right now?  What will I be reading after that?  (I do update Goodreads from time to time as well.)

At present:

  • The Beautiful and the Damned – F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  • The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea – Yukio Mishima
  • The Walk – Robert Walser
  • Oxfordshire Folk Tales – Kevan Manwaring
  • The Melancholy of Mechagirl – Catherine Valente

Waiting on my desk:

  • The Informers – Bret Easton Ellis
  • Amerika – Franz Kafka
  • Chasing the Dime – Michael Connelly
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
  • The Prague Cemetery – Umberto Eco