Something Old, Something New

I hate Fully Booked. Or (not to get all Rihanna up in everyone's business but) I hate that I love Fully Booked. They are seriously robbing me of all my hard-earned money. Ah, well. What else will I spend on, right? Yesterday, I was with Keav at Greenhills and (against my better judgement) I lead us into (the trap that is) Fully Booked. Lo and behold, they were on sale! And it was not just any sale--it was a 50% off sale. There were so many amazing titles and I had a very, very difficult time deciding what to get. For instance, I decided to forego the purchase of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (because I already have it) and Frozen by Jonathan Franzen (because I already have enough books about disintegrating marriages--although I still want to read this). 

I ended up walking away with David Foster Wallace's unfinished, post-mortem novel The Pale King, Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves and Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved. 

 Two of these books are technically re-purchases. What I Loved is one of my favorite books--unfortunately, my 315-peso copy was held hostage during a break up back in 2010 and seeing as how that ex-boyfriend moved out of his house when we broke up, I doubt he still has the book (moreso, I doubt he would give it back to me). I read the novel that Siri Hustvedt came out with after this one--The Sorrows of An American and I didn't enjoy it as much; since finishing that I've really been wanting to read What I Loved again so when I saw this on the shelf, I jumped at the chance to get it. For those who are interested in reading it, it's the kind of book that is about something so specific that it becomes a book about everything: art, psychology, friendship, interaction. I really don't want to spoil it for you, so here is a link to the summary (I hope you guys will forgive my using wiki--the summary here is accurate but not overly revealing and it seemed like the best option).

The Swan Thieves was a book that I'd already owned and was already halfway through when I made the mistake of leaving it in my friend Trizha's bag. That copy (with all my notes huhuhu) has since disappeared; friends' bags are the Bermuda Triangle of books. :)) My edition was big, with huge text and cost me double of this edition--although I'm not sure why this is cheaper, I think it looks way better. I have a thing for tiny font. It just looks so pretty. D: This novel is about art and psychosis as well and is also narrated from the POV of an old, lonesome guy. I think those are the stories that I identify with most: those that revolve around the retrospection and regret of an old man (I liked Inception very much too hahahaha). You can find the summary here. 

Although to be honest, I didn't enjoy this book so much (or rather, wasn't enjoying it so much before it disappeared) because there was so much emphasis on psychosis and being "different" that a lot of the different things about the characters got lost in the telling. I will, however finish this first before making up my mind.

The only actual new book I got was The Pale King and I was very hesitant about it at first because a) it's unfinished and b) there's something creepy and voyeuristic about reading the unpublished work of someone who's died (especially if like David Foster Wallace, they off-ed themselves). I imagine I would have the same dilemma if by some unearthly force, J.D. Salinger's estate decided to publish all the work he's hoarded for years. With people who've died, it's difficult to decide whether or not reading the things they left behind is ethical--they found the manuscript of this book in a neat pile in DFW's garage after he died and that one detail (the neat pile) in the foreword made me buy this: he was going to send it to Little, Brown that day and so I made up my mind that it was okay for me to get a copy of this. I've not read a lot of DFW's work and none of his novels--the only book of his I have is Oblivion, which is a compilation of some of the best (and creepiest) short fiction I've ever read--so I'm very curious about what's in store for me here.