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I’d like to claim that decided to read Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 as response to the recent postal rate hikes, but it’s unfortunately just sweet serendipity. The real reason that I picked up Lot 49 is that I hadn’t read it and Powells was clearing out copies for $5.

I love reading “literary” books as diversions from the usual crap that I consume at a page a minute because it:

1. Makes me feel dumb
2. Makes me feel smart
3. Stretches my brain and vocabulary to places where it really has no right to go
4. Compels me to make lists…

The Crying of Lot 49 turned out to be a lot easier to read than I figured it would be. Pynchon has stated in the past that he’s not a huge fan of this novel (and it’s almost always listed as the most accessible of the bunch). As a story I liked it, Oedipa Maas is a great protagonist, and the slice of her life that we get a glimpse of seems like just the right amount. I love the ambiguity of the conspiracy as it develops, or doesn’t, and found the outlandish names and corresponding archetypal roles of the characters a refreshing change of pace.

Pynchon does a simply bang up job of the play within a play motif, and I was immediately reminded of both my recent reading of The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. To top that, the chapter that covers Oedipa’s drunken night in San Fransisco is one of the best snippets of writing I’ve encountered in years. I think this may actually be the first novel I’ve ever read where the songs made up by the author didn’t cause me to immediately cringe.

Highly recommended, even if you don’t think you can make it through (you can!). I’ve read Vineland twice, and attempted Gravity’s Rainbow at least three times. This one is by far the easiest, and I’m sure it will entertain again whenever I get around to re-reading it.

I recently picked up this one up, with about a million other books, at Powells for a song. I was predestined to enjoy it, given that I believe that This American Life may actually trump sliced bread, and that I found Naked to be one of the funniest books ever written. David Sedaris’ fourth novel Me Talk Pretty One Day works best when he’s describing his time in France; not that the other bits aren’t funny, it’s just that the French bits feel more cohesive, and work with one another to make that section of the book more humorous as a whole. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed his other work, but as an introduction to Sedaris I’d point someone either in the direction of Naked, or to a recording of the Santaland Diaries. A good deal of the reason this book is so funny is that the reader is familiar with David, his family, and his voice… without the knowledge of all three some of the jokes would definitely fall a bit flat.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

 I’ve made my own Bailey’s ice cream before by toping vanilla ice cream with Bailey’s, but this, this… this is MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I don’t usually even like ice cream all that much!

Lip smack.  Lip smack.  Bailey’s-a-licious.

Surely you have heard of this book by now, and yes, it is as good as you’ve heard. Exquistely beautiful and heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking, this novel paints a clear and engaging portrait of Afghanistan before and after it was broken by war and Taliban rule. The story of Afghanistan is not mere backdrop, but a critical part of the tale of the narrator–a once privleged son of Afghanistan, now attempting to escape the ghosts of his past in California. As in all good books, his past comes back to haunt him in the most breathtaking of ways. A story of friendship, betrayal, shame, terror, and redemption, this novel will not quickly take leave of your mind. One of my few enthusiastic, wholehearted, and unqualified recommendations of the year (and by that I mean 2005 as well!).

John Darnielle’s treatise on surviving a childhood of abuse easily gets my top pick of the year. The lyrics make this record, and I can’t imagine them without Darnielle’s wailing delivery. This Year and Dance Music are my two favorite tracks, although I usually find myself listening to the album as a whole; once you’ve got the St Joseph’s Baby Aspirin you’ve got to make it through to the Pale Green Things. I can’t say enough good things about this album, worth a listen (or 20), and definitely worth catching on tour.

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.

I drove home in the California dusk.
I could feel the alcohol inside of me.
Home.
Picture the look on my stepfather’s face,
ready for the bad things to come.

I was introduced to The National as the headliner at a $10 show that featured Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Talkdemonic. I’ve never spent less money for more entertainment, and I’ve never been so pleasantly surprised by a headliner I was thinking of skipping. I enjoy the more rocking tunes on this record, and if pressed to pick a favorite I’d have to go with Mr. November. Good from start to finish, but less cohesive than The Mountain Goats disc.

I’m the new blue blood, I’m the great white hope
I’m the new blue blood

I won’t fuck us over, I’m Mr. November
I’m Mr. November, I won’t fuck us over

Clocking in at only 7 songs and right about 30 minutes, Iron & Wine and Calexico’s In the Reins is short and sweet. I’d have enjoyed this one more if it had been a true collaboration. I’m not the biggest fan of Sam Beam, but he’s good in small doses, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better backing band. Hopefully they’ll get back together and Joey and John can get some input, duets between Beam and Burns would sound so sweet.

One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
She’s like grace from the earth
When you’re all tuckered out and tame

I initially thought that Kanye West’s Late Registration was going to be a total dud, thankfully I was wrong. Other than the lame skits and the gawd awful Brandy song this one is a collection of solid gold hits that I’m sure will be bled dry until I hate every last song. That’s the one downside of every decent hip-hop album in the last few years, eventually they become so played out that I can’t bear to listen to them any more…

You tellin’ me if my grandma was in the N.B.A.
right now she’d be ok?
But since she was just a secretary
working for the church
for thirty five years
things s’posed to stop right here?

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self released “mega-hit” was next to impossible to find (other than on mp3, where it was next to impossible to avoid). I actually managed to stop the clerk at a local music as he was putting up the only copy they’d received. Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth is probably my favorite track, but they’re all good, on record at least… I’d have enjoyed this album much more if they hadn’t totally phoned in their first live show in Portland.

Who - Will get me to a party?
Who - Do I have yet to meet?
You - You look a bit like coffee
And you taste a bit like me

Antony and the Johnsons’ I am a Bird Now was a tough record to get into. On first listen I hated it, and deleted the mp3s from my hard drive. At a picnic a few weeks later someone mentioned it as one of their favorite albums so far of the year, and said that it took a couple of listens to get into. One trip back to usenet and four or five more listens I didn’t hate it. I kept listening for the same reasons you watch a trainwreck… you can’t stop it. For Today I Am A Bouy is definitely my favorite track of the bunch, but again they’re all good (it just takes a while).

One day I’ll grow up
Be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up
Be a beautiful girl

For today, I am a child
For today I am a boy

Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary fills the yearly Canadian Rock and/or Roll spot in my heart that was created two years ago by Broken Social Scene and was filled admirably last year by Arcade Fire. Truth be told the Wolf Parade record isn’t as good as either of those, but it’s still a good disc. Grounds for Divorce is definitely my favorite of the tracks.

But look at the lovers
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move their hands
And look at their babies
And their tiny little hands
And the way they get loved and the way they get loved oh

That’s all for this year boys and girls…