@@LeafbyLeaf , wow! One of the greatest jazz pianist defined "a living legend" by the library of congress. You have good taste in music as well as in books.
Love the Thor-like hair. It's awesome. By the way, I finally got a somewhat jacked up paperback copy of Risen Angels so I'm going to start it sooner rather than later.
Haha! Thanks! It's still taking some getting used to--I've had very short hair all my life until a year ago (or so). A jacked up paperback will probably only lend to the charm of Vollmann's brand of maximalist novel! With every subsequent book of his I am constantly amazed that the same guy can pull all this stuff off!
Thanks! I can't remember what I said in the video concerning the photo essays, but in general I wish the captions were with the respective pictures. There is indeed an index prefacing the photos in all of his books. But, well, now I'm wondering if it's actually better that the pictures are sans text. Maybe this actually makes a bigger impact on the reader/viewer. It's like, you read the index and load the textual captions in your short-term memory, and then let the pictures speak to you for themselves and make immanent connections with the captions that are freshly on your mind. Hmmm. Thanks for prodding my thinking on this!
I've been thinking about squeezing in a Vollmann or two before the release of The Lucky Star. This seems like it may be a good one. I was considering Fathers and Crows, too, but it's such a beast. Although, I do have until mid Feb, so maybe I can swing both while still reading other things in between.
I’m reading Fathers and Crows right now and I can definitely confirm that it does not bear the quality of being able to be squeezed in. (Though it is one of the most fruitful reading experiences I’ve had in a long while.) You won’t go wrong with Poor People or Riding Toward Everywhere for nonfiction, or The Ice-Shirt for fiction. His greatest works, however, are the densest, so-here’s to 2020!
@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks for the alternate recommendations! I had a feeling Fathers and Crows would be another big project. It took me a few weeks to properly read The Royal Family, and I'd hate to rush through something like that. I mean, what's the point of even bothering with a book like that if you're just going to plow through it? And since I plan on reading Pynchon's Mason & Dixon before the New Year and Joseph McElroy's Women and Men in January (which, in all honesty, will probably take me part of Feb, too), I might put off that one until later in 2020. You ever read any Joseph McElroy?
@@bedet I'm about 100pp from finishing Fathers and Crows and I feel that I have been immersed in the world of a staggering genius--the book has completely absorbed my life! I agree about plowing through. I plan to take on Musil's The Man without Qualities as my January book, and, like you, it'll likely bleed into February. I actually have not read any McElroy, unfortunately, but I have three of his books, including the magnum opus, which I got in hardcover from a mountain-town library for fifty cents. Yes. Fifty cents! Great condition, too. I really need McElroy on my 2020 TBR. Actually, I think I'll whip up a quick video on my current 2020 TBR. (It already includes Mason & Dixon, the only Pynchon I have not read.)
@@LeafbyLeaf Great to hear such good things about Fathers and Crows. I look forward to that video! Musil is another one on my list, whom I hope to get to sooner rather than later. And M&D is also my only remaining Pynchon. I sort of consciously saved it for last, not exactly sure why, other than I have high hopes for it.
@@LeafbyLeaf Also, that's crazy that you scored a hardcover of W&M for 50 cents! What a find! I snagged one of the signed dzanc reprints from last year. And, yes, a 2020 TBR video would be cool. You're one of maybe 5 booktubers whose TBR videos I'd actually be interested in. A bookshelf tour, too (though I seem to remember that being requested already).
Well, I'm on the WTV video road. I'd love to hear you discuss his research process. I don't understand how the heck that work.
For a long time he worked for 16 hours every day, then he developed carpal tunnel and repetitive eye syndrome. He is a machine.
Vollmann is the guy who wrote the most and the one who travelled the most, especially regarding to his not so old an age(he is 60 years old).
And he shows no sign of stopping!
I also appreciate the jazz kind of music in the background!
Just got a new record player. That’s Dave Brubeck!
@@LeafbyLeaf , wow! One of the greatest jazz pianist defined "a living legend" by the library of congress. You have good taste in music as well as in books.
Marina Maccagni many thanks!
Love the Thor-like hair. It's awesome. By the way, I finally got a somewhat jacked up paperback copy of Risen Angels so I'm going to start it sooner rather than later.
Haha! Thanks! It's still taking some getting used to--I've had very short hair all my life until a year ago (or so). A jacked up paperback will probably only lend to the charm of Vollmann's brand of maximalist novel! With every subsequent book of his I am constantly amazed that the same guy can pull all this stuff off!
To start a video with a book of vollmann is a perfect slam dunk!
I agree!
Enjoyed the commentary! There is a glossary right before the photos that describes each of them.
Thanks! I can't remember what I said in the video concerning the photo essays, but in general I wish the captions were with the respective pictures. There is indeed an index prefacing the photos in all of his books. But, well, now I'm wondering if it's actually better that the pictures are sans text. Maybe this actually makes a bigger impact on the reader/viewer. It's like, you read the index and load the textual captions in your short-term memory, and then let the pictures speak to you for themselves and make immanent connections with the captions that are freshly on your mind. Hmmm. Thanks for prodding my thinking on this!
I've been thinking about squeezing in a Vollmann or two before the release of The Lucky Star. This seems like it may be a good one. I was considering Fathers and Crows, too, but it's such a beast. Although, I do have until mid Feb, so maybe I can swing both while still reading other things in between.
I’m reading Fathers and Crows right now and I can definitely confirm that it does not bear the quality of being able to be squeezed in. (Though it is one of the most fruitful reading experiences I’ve had in a long while.) You won’t go wrong with Poor People or Riding Toward Everywhere for nonfiction, or The Ice-Shirt for fiction. His greatest works, however, are the densest, so-here’s to 2020!
@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks for the alternate recommendations! I had a feeling Fathers and Crows would be another big project. It took me a few weeks to properly read The Royal Family, and I'd hate to rush through something like that. I mean, what's the point of even bothering with a book like that if you're just going to plow through it? And since I plan on reading Pynchon's Mason & Dixon before the New Year and Joseph McElroy's Women and Men in January (which, in all honesty, will probably take me part of Feb, too), I might put off that one until later in 2020. You ever read any Joseph McElroy?
@@bedet I'm about 100pp from finishing Fathers and Crows and I feel that I have been immersed in the world of a staggering genius--the book has completely absorbed my life! I agree about plowing through. I plan to take on Musil's The Man without Qualities as my January book, and, like you, it'll likely bleed into February. I actually have not read any McElroy, unfortunately, but I have three of his books, including the magnum opus, which I got in hardcover from a mountain-town library for fifty cents. Yes. Fifty cents! Great condition, too. I really need McElroy on my 2020 TBR. Actually, I think I'll whip up a quick video on my current 2020 TBR. (It already includes Mason & Dixon, the only Pynchon I have not read.)
@@LeafbyLeaf Great to hear such good things about Fathers and Crows. I look forward to that video! Musil is another one on my list, whom I hope to get to sooner rather than later. And M&D is also my only remaining Pynchon. I sort of consciously saved it for last, not exactly sure why, other than I have high hopes for it.
@@LeafbyLeaf Also, that's crazy that you scored a hardcover of W&M for 50 cents! What a find! I snagged one of the signed dzanc reprints from last year. And, yes, a 2020 TBR video would be cool. You're one of maybe 5 booktubers whose TBR videos I'd actually be interested in. A bookshelf tour, too (though I seem to remember that being requested already).