reading

finished the aspern papers by henry james and after the quake by haruki murikami.

the aspern papers: a jolly jaunt through the perils of journalism. he uses very long sentences sometimes. now that i have to teach grammar, i notice that long sentences easily confuse me when i think of them in a grammatical way. to combat this i just read all the words really quickly and hope the damn thing makes sense before i start the next one. it's amazing how far you can go with 3 people and an old house.

after the quake: a load of short stories relating to the kobe earthquake that killed loads of people. i used to hate short stories: found them pointless and unfulfilling. now i love a great short story. short stories are a fragment of someone's imagination that the reader has to complete. short stories are lean and taut. nothing is wasted. it's one hundred percent straight up, fresh from the farm with no additives or flavorings.