that is so funny because I wrote coordinating schedules a few months after I graduated and based some of it off my college experience but most of it off visiting my friends at their colleges because I went to an art school that did not have a "campus" with a "student center" or "multiple libraries" lmao lot of that was just. best guessing. I am very proud of it though it reminds me of a lot of good times we had a student newspaper but no lit mag and I missed my old high school lit mag every day despite getting into journalism against my will okay so most recently I've read Beartown by Frederik Backman, and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both of which are very Place-y books but for opposite places (remote Swedish hockey town vs Columbo, Sri Lanka in the 80s). I feel like both books made the Placeness a big focal point by jumping around a lot of different points of view, while focusing on a small central cast, and detailing each character's place in the world they inhabit. Each book really made me feel like I was physically in those places. A coworker recommended Beartown as a Winter Book, but honestly I think it's a book to read when the air conditioning is broken in the middle of the summer because it will make you feel colder. I don't know if I liked everything in it, but it was interesting. Maali Almeida might not make you feel warmer but it will make you very aware of your own sweat. It's really really good-- visceral and unflinching, layered and complex, intense but also like, fun? I really enjoyed reading both of these books. Maybe look up content warnings for them before you read them though Fine arts feels like another universe to me I almost never think about galleries and always think about books paper printing and stapling. One of my grad school profs dumped out all of her original pages for her second graphic novel into a trash can in Berlin because her luggage was over the weight limit and she didn't like the pages anymore and now every time I see that book in a store I remember that. I live in a small town next to a more famous town and within commuting distance of NYC so reading a book set in Exactly My Small Town And Nowhere Else was very new and strange to me lol
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Reading this in the dark on a couch in my apt
Date: 2023-07-05 12:09 am (UTC)we had a student newspaper but no lit mag and I missed my old high school lit mag every day despite getting into journalism against my will
okay so most recently I've read Beartown by Frederik Backman, and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both of which are very Place-y books but for opposite places (remote Swedish hockey town vs Columbo, Sri Lanka in the 80s). I feel like both books made the Placeness a big focal point by jumping around a lot of different points of view, while focusing on a small central cast, and detailing each character's place in the world they inhabit. Each book really made me feel like I was physically in those places.
A coworker recommended Beartown as a Winter Book, but honestly I think it's a book to read when the air conditioning is broken in the middle of the summer because it will make you feel colder. I don't know if I liked everything in it, but it was interesting. Maali Almeida might not make you feel warmer but it will make you very aware of your own sweat. It's really really good-- visceral and unflinching, layered and complex, intense but also like, fun? I really enjoyed reading both of these books. Maybe look up content warnings for them before you read them though
Fine arts feels like another universe to me I almost never think about galleries and always think about books paper printing and stapling. One of my grad school profs dumped out all of her original pages for her second graphic novel into a trash can in Berlin because her luggage was over the weight limit and she didn't like the pages anymore and now every time I see that book in a store I remember that.
I live in a small town next to a more famous town and within commuting distance of NYC so reading a book set in Exactly My Small Town And Nowhere Else was very new and strange to me lol