Music & Literature
The Decameron
Ferdydurke
HUFFINGTON
09.23.12
friends had me come away with a stack of things to read.
Fortunately, these people know me so well I can bet they
wouldn’t throw nonsense my way. Wish I never did read Pynchon, McCarthy, Henry Miller, etc. or any of the dozens of new
age and self-help books, long-winded crime and sci-fi novels
or near-sighted art theory essays that made their way into my
hands. Maybe that’s what it is to be young — reading
bad. Although it probably made me a stronger reader,
I’ll never get back those hours. Now if the thing flinches
in the first chapter I cut it off and send it to the thrift
store. Maybe that’s what it is to get older — reading lazy.
A friend at Sequence Press gave me The Number
and the Siren — a decipherment of Mallarmé’s Coup
de Des. I was glad to take a break from Twain and
move to poetry, especially Mallarmé, who’s always a
mystery to me. Which reminds me, add to the list —
back to Poe and Hamlet. And find later Mallarmé. Another friend gave me Ferdydurke and Reader’s Block.
Says the former is the only book banned by Nazis,
Stalinists and Polish communists — good sell.
Now I will add these to what I had:
Finish The Decameron
Ronald Firbank
Voodoo and magic pamphlets
Find more Spanish Picaresque novels
Religious stuff
Finish all Twain, London, Hemingway, Fitzgerald,
Willeford, etc.
Music: Interviews by Ornette Coleman; Schoenberg;
English and Scottish ballads
And last but not least: reread all my favorite books.
The Number and The Siren
Cass McCombs is a singer-songwriter and storyteller who resides in San Francisco. His most recent album is Humor Risk.