Jason Diamond
First, I’m just gonna say that even though I haven’t read it yet, the latest music issues of The Believer looks like a huge winner.  I’m most excited for the Ross Simonini essay/CD compilation of the new generation of music made by folks who are called composers (Dan Deacon, Judd Greenstein, Owen Pallett, etc.).

Last week was my vacation, and while you usually expect time off to be spent reading lots of books, I hunkered down with my own book research, and mostly read about two things:  Ginevra King and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s brief romance, and polo.

I also finally got around to reading the amazing WFMU essay on the career of comedian Shecky Greene.  I kinda feel like this thing falls under “if you’re gonna read one or two things this year (shame on you for reading so little), make it this…” category.

Tobias Carroll
Much of this week’s reading has been consumed by Gabriela Avigur-Rotem’s Heatwave and Crazy Birds, which I’ll be reviewing in this space at some point in the coming weeks. It’s an oddly structured, densely paced book; as I’m around eighty pages from the end as of this writing, I find myself very curious as to what the shape of the novel as a whole will be.

Prior to that, I did something I’d meant to do for about eighteen months and read George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. (For what it’s worth, I have not been watching HBO’s  adaptation, though I expect I will before too long.) While occasional sentences are sometimes jarring, the plotting and pacing are terrific, as are the layers of conflict established. And the followup, A Clash of Kings, has been added to my to-read shelf.

And, apropos of nothing, I’ll close with this bit from the latest New Yorker: “The weirdest hiccup in the movie arrives when the name “Bernard-Henri Levy” is translated in the subtitles as “Woody Allen.”” There’s got to be a Tumblr concept in there somewhere.