Authors

Note: this post is a bit different. First, listen to the story in this post if you've not already. Then, when you get to the triple asterisk (***), please stop reading, click on them, and listen to the story.
With uni finished, I've been reading a few books that I've been wanting to get in to. I find that the author I read always have a strong influence on how I write, and how I think. The style of their writing that I hear in my mind tends to carry on after I've closed the book.
I'm making a start on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book I've read once in the distant past, but is so wondrously interesting that it's drawn me back for further inspection. I'd highly recommend this book - I thought I had a handsome grasp of science, but Bryson is more than proficient at explaining lofty subjects.
Another I'm revisiting is Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. It's a multi-faceted book, with narratives that frustrate and lull the reader. And a structure that                 tries                      to                      re   flect                  the
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s           in the book. Plus - Short punchy sentences. And ones which are long and drawn out like an old tangled rope winding their words around your brain and holding it, transfixed and unmoving with a thrum of ideas in the background that can't emerge, but no, no rope at all, there never was a rope instead a pile of ancient dirt surrounding and ultimately compressing your body until with no other option, your eyes follow these words, my words, in a hypnotic stream.
And then Tao Lin, who I've been reading recently, and who's had a big impact on the way I think ***

And I wonder if this kind of post will eventually catch the attention of Tao Lin, and I realise that 'hey, the internet is a pretty connected place. It seems like there is a reasonable possibility that it will'

Happy birthday Daneila

Today is my friend Daniela's birthday. She's a pretty great person, and seems to be able to express herself in ways that I'd like to. She's fun to hang out with, and is wonderfully conversant; things just seem to flow so nicely.
Daniela lives in Dunedin, and a while ago she had to read White Noise, by Don DeLillo. I offered to record myself reading it aloud, but fell through because, well I don't think I had the commitment to dictate an entire novel.
For her birthday, I read her a few short stories, which were more interesting, and wholly more achievable. My favourite one is I Am Unemployed, by Tao Lin. I was very happy with how it sounds, and if you'd like to listen to me reading it, click here (and read along with it here).
Happy birthday!