Author: Ian

Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari (with Eric Klinenberg, 2015)

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Dick pics. Waiting exactly two hours before responding to a flirty text.  Swiping through Tinder while at an actual bar because the people there aren’t quite good enough.  Aziz Ansari reveals string after string of sharp, relatable truths about 21st century phone-based dating and how today’s young adults struggle through a new period of emerging adulthood in their quests for the perfect soulmate.  The book smartly blends sociological research, jokes about rappers, insights into the dating scenes in Japan and Buenos Aires, and actual, useful advice for navigating the ever-changing world of modern romance.  Well played, Aziz.

Rating:

5-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought online this September after telling myself for months that I was finally going to read the damned thing.

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Aziz Ansari essay, Everything You Thought You Knew About L-O-V-E is Wrong

Eric Klinenberg’s website

Budgeting 101 For Creative People

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Budgeting is awesome and literally everyone should do it.  As a creative guy with a Day Job, budgeting’s especially important for me since I need to track my Day Job hours and keep the accounts balanced while I finish my novel-in-progress.  Not only that, it also shows me how I’m doing in my quest to pay off my student loans and helps me track how much of my income goes toward essentials (like rent!) and how much goes toward fun stuff (like books!). Continue reading »

The Epic of Gilgamesh (2100 BC), translated by N.K. Sanders (1972)

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I like reading myths from other cultures because they capture the familiar spirit of the Greek myths with new sets of heroes.  Ancient Sumer’s Gilgamesh is no exception: our hero befriends a sidekick from the wilderness, journeys through forests to slay a deadly monster, grapples with a jealous goddess, and seeks the prize of eternal life.  There’s even an ancient flood that shares more than a few similarities with the Biblical one.  Editor N.K. Sanders also provides a lot of textual background in her introduction, padding out the Penguin edition since the myth itself is so short (60 pages).

Rating:

3-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought used at a local book sale, October 2012, making it one of the longest-running books in the stack.

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Background to the Epic of Gilgamesh on Wikipedia

The entire Epic of Gilgamesh in PDF form

The Five-Year Party, by Craig Brandon (2010)

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Craig Brandon exposes some of higher ed’s most pressing problems: rising tuition, overconstruction, bloated administrator salaries, and too many administrative positions, which lead to decreased education standards, unsafe party school atmospheres, worthless degrees, and lots of debt.  Unfortunately, though, Brandon writes like a sarcastic and angry old millennial-basher who overgeneralizes, repeats a lot of his points, and writes to an audience of worried parents rather than exploring the issues facing college students’ independence from their level.  This makes for eye-rolling chapters that leave the reader feeling angry, even though dumbed-down college-student experiences ultimately affect everyone.

Rating:

2-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought online in Summer 2015, years after originally seeing it reviewed in a list of new author releases.

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The Five-Year Party on Amazon

Wall Street Journal review (summarizes Brandon’s points more succinctly than the actual book)

Higher Ed review (expands on the party school phenomenon with some solid insights)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera (1984)

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Kundera’s prose is just plain beautiful: lyrical, thought-provoking, and melodic, divided into short, powerful scenes that make for lots of page-turning, so an extra kudos to translator Michael Henry Heim for capturing the power of the original Czech.  The plot involves a man who cheats constantly on his wife, but the plot comes second to Kundera’s other subjects: love, the 1968 Prague Spring/Communist invasion by Russia, more love, sex, communication, more sex, fate, dogs, fidelity, being an ex-pat, loyalty to one’s ideals, and old age.  A great read, though a quick warning: the philosophical reflections do get dense.

Rating:

4-kafkas

Where I Got It

Gift from a friend I visited in Columbus, Ohio who was downsizing his book collection and recommended it highly, Summer 2015.

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Milan Kundera on Wikipedia

How Important is Milan Kundera Today? (2015 article in The Guardian)

The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory, by Stacy Wakefield (2014)

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An indie novel about twentysomething punk squatters in New York City in the ‘90s—where do I sign?  I was really excited to read this book but was disappointed by the plot (which does a fair amount of wandering), the characters (which, apart from the coolheaded but hasn’t-found-her-place-yet narrator, never quite stand out), and some lackluster scenes.  What Wakefield does really well instead, though, is show the hazards of Brooklyn squatting life (which is a lot more organized than I’d imagined) by capturing the mechanics of garbage disposal and squatters’ rights in ways that feel intricate and real.

Rating:

2-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought new at Quimby’s bookstore in Chicago while on a trip, Summer 2015.

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The Sunshine Crust Baking factory at Akashic Books

Interview with Former-NYC squatter Stacy Wakefield