Patagoniacs

Read - Don't read.

"Tu verras", Nicolas Fargues. Definitely not. Don't see any interest in this book. The story, the style, the end, the people. Looks like it has been written in an airport during strikes or on a beach between 2 shashlik parties ... Really don't understand such book. 

Jonathan Coe "la vie très privée de Mr. Sim", is the next on my list. Started well, and should be much better than "Tu verras". 

"Le front russe" is really nice, funny and full of things you can appreciate when you spent some days in Russia, even if all the story happens in Paris. 

 

Reading...

"Nagasaki" written by Eric Faye. From a true story in Japan to the thoughts about ghosts of the past and lonesome life.
Comics :
"WTC". About 9/11 and the oil and terror game played by the US. Not as detailed as a book but interesting if you have in mind the very good "Syriana" and the books linked to it "Or noir et maison blanche".
"Malouines" ("falklands islands") About the aviators during the war between Argentina and the UK. Reminded me about the question I had during an exam about the origin of the name of these Islands discovered by French sailors.

And in my iPhone, to kill time while the strikes are still active in France:"eye of war". Hope it'll be a good one.

Bastille Day and other little things

13 years ago, we could read this in the Newspaper. 

What happened since then ? 

- The French Army reduced its size and became fully professional. No more draftee. 

- France joined back NATO. For good ? 

- France is engaged in Afghanistan but said no to go to Irak. 

- 70% of the French population is against the presence of France in Afghanistan.

-  New comic book from Ralf Konig, "Et Maintenant Allongez-Vous"

- We all have a Pretexte

The Dawn Patrol and other things for summer time

Just ended "Un tocard sur le toit du monde". Disturbing and interesting and a dive in another world. After "Into thin air", it just shows a different aspect of the challenges and what means "Climbing" depending on where you are from. 

Just started "The dawn patrol" (in french : La patrouille de l'aube") from Don Winslow. The first pages are just right on time, right on tone, right on ... Thanks sister for the gift.

Playlist for pre and post-surfing moments : Just Jack, Tribeqa, Trombone Shorty.

The mix

Read the book Kolyma (and have a look at this).

Just bought yesterday the iphone application from RSF

And it's just a perfect timing, a perfect mix.

The pictures from 1956 ring a bell after you read Kolyma.

Go for it !!

Bloc note (update)

Post-it.

Music, book, story : http://boulbar.com/

Book: Infrarouge 

Photo : Diane Arbus - Selection here

Comics: Izneo - More here

And for the books : 

- Katiba - The last book of JC Rufin. 

Chasing waves !

http://www.amywaeschle.com/ Seen on The Cleanest Line. 

I hate bad ends

Yes, I hate bad ends. Nothing new you will say, or think, and I am not very original by saying that, but the fact is that I've been reading 2 books and both of them had bad ends. 

When I say bad, it does not mean that it was not a happy end or something like that. It was bad because it looked like the authors stopped writing their book in a hurry to give him to their editors and just put a point to the story, with a lot of pending questions or just the laziness to go deeper in their thought. 

Some may call that "suspens", other will say that it lets the reader think about the options, and reinvent the story and the aftermaths of the climax and anticlimax. 

But I hate that. 

Hopefully, the first story of "Killer Koala" was fun and the end was good. Alcool and snakes don't go well together ! 

L'étreinte fraternelle du samouraï

Sorry for the non French speaking readers, but I couldn't resist this morning to mention this : "l'étreinte fraternelle du samouraï"

If you want to understand why I wanted to mention this, then read the last book of Amelie Nothomb : "Ni d'Eve, ni d'Adam".

Easy and quick to read, and nice.

For the crazy impatient people who do not want to read the book and want to directly read the part I am speaking about, go there. But honestly, you'd better read the beok.

Books and universal conscious !

Strange feeling this morning that life is made of several feelings which, despite the deep impression that each people experience their own feelings, are exactly the same for everybody. Books tend to be the link showing that behind each story, different and unique for everybody, the life experience, love, hate, smile, courage, ... notions are  universal and universally shared.
To be honest, till few years I used to read "useful" books, that is to say, books in which you learn about a subject (politics, economy, surf ...). Very few romans.
Now, I take time to read pure useless books :-) and what stroke me is how parts of our life can be so well described in stories which look, at first, very far away from our daily life.