2011 Reading List Monthly Update: July

Books completed in July 2011:

"Nineteen Eighty Three" (David Peace) 7/2/11
"Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception" (Frater Achad) 7/7/11
"Graves" (Thomas Moore) 7/9/11
"The Book of Lies" (Aleister Crowley) 7/13/11
"The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/14/11
"The Focus of Life" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
"Anathema of Zos" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
"Querelle" (Jean Genet) 7/19/11
"Myths of the Near Future" (J.G. Ballard) 7/29/11


2011 Reading List total:

1. "Welcome to my World" (Johnny Weir) 1/12/11
2. "Cold Hand in Mine" (Robert Aickman) 1/14/11
3. "The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse" (Lonely Christopher) 1/20/11
4. "Illuminated Shadows" (James Champagne) 1/20/11 *
5. "Eat When You Feel Sad" (Zachary German) 1/23/11
6. "The Marble Index" (James Champagne)
7. "Brigit" (Andrew Champagne) 2/15/11
8. "Gravity's Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon) 2/25/11
9. "Demons by Daylight" (Ramsey Campbell) 3/4/11
10. "Neuromancer" (William Gibson) 3/7/11 *
11. "Don Quixote" (Kathy Acker) 3/16/11
12. "Snow Crash" (Neal Stephenson) 3/31/11
13. "Shoplifting From American Apparel" (Tao Lin) 4/1/11
14. "Franny and Zooey" (J.D. Salinger) 4/7/11
15. "The Failure" (James Greer) 4/8/11
16. "The Gospel of Anarchy" (Justin Taylor) 4/16/11
17. "Dhalgren" (Samuel R. Delany) 4/21/11
18. "There Is No Year" (Blake Butler) 4/25/11
19. "Star Maker" (Olaf Stapledon) 5/1/11
20. "Death in Venice" (Thomas Mann) 5/3/11
21. "The Celestine Prophecy" (James Redfield) 5/9/11
22. "Selfish, Little: the Annotated Lesley Ann Downey" (Peter Sotos) 5/11/11 *
23. "The Quantity Theory of Insanity" (Will Self) 5/15/11
24. "Principia Discordia" (Malaclypse the Younger) 5/18/11 *
25. "Topology of a Phantom City" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) 5/21/11
26. "The Archaic Revival" (Terence McKenna) 5/23/11
27. "The Wasp Factory" (Iain Banks) 5/27/11
28. "Stories Toto Told Me" (Baron Corvo) 5/29/11
29. "The Oblate of St. Benedict" (J.K. Huysmans) 6/2/11
30. "Ubik" (Philip K. Dick) 6/8/11
31. "Ecpyrosis: The Best of Starfire Vol. I" (Various) 6/12/11
32. "Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts & Cults" (Jacques Vallee) 6/15/11
33. "Earth Inferno" (Austin Osman Spare) 6/18/11
34. "The Book of Satyrs" (Austin Osman Spare) 6/18/11
35. "A Scanner Darkly" (Philip K. Dick) 6/20/11
36. "Nineteen Seventy Four" (David Peace) 6/21/11
37."Nineteen Seventy Seven" (David Peace) 6/24/11
38. "Nineteen Eighty" (David Peace) 6/28/11
39. "Nineteen Eighty Three" (David Peace) 7/2/11
40. "Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception" (Frater Achad) 7/7/11
41. "Graves" (Thomas Moore) 7/9/11
42. "The Book of Lies" (Aleister Crowley) 7/13/11
43. "The Book of Pleasure: The Psychology of Ecstasy" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/14/11
44. "The Focus of Life" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
45. "Anathema of Zos" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
46. "Querelle" (Jean Genet) 7/19/11
47. "Myths of the Near Future" (J.G. Ballard) 7/29/11

*= book I've read at least once in the past

currently reading:

"Empire Star/Babel-17" (Samuel R. Delany)

My "Failed Novels" Folder

Contents include:

"Slack is Beautiful" (worked on in 2009) 115 handwritten pages + notes [Status: unfinished]

"Poisonville" (worked on in 2002) 114 handwritten pages + notes [Status: unfinished]

"The Beta Sequence" (notes only) 2006 & 2008

"Blasphemous Rumors" (worked on in 2006) 25 typed pages + notes [Status: unfinished]

"Andy Warhol Novel" (worked on in 2007) 60 typed pages + notes [Status: unfinished]

"Subhuman" (worked on in 2007/2008) 151 typed pages + notes [Status: complete, but in desperate need of revision/rewriting]

"Jormungand" (notes only) 2010

* * * *

Slack is Beautiful was an attempt to write an airy romantic comedy in the Reality Bites/Friends vein.

Poisonville was a crime novel that was my attempt to take the experience of playing a Grand Theft Auto video game and turning it into a novel.

The Beta Sequence was never a serious project: it was meant to be a spoof of the type of novel written by authors such as Robert Ludlum, Dan Brown, and Jon Land.

Blasphemous Rumors was to have been a murder mystery set at a fictitious college campus in upstate New York.

Subhuman was a short novel that revolved around my experiences as a bookseller. I still hope to rework it into something publishable one day. I'm just too lazy to rewrite the parts that need to be rewritten. But I feel with some tighter editing I could get something worthwhile from it.

Jormungand was to have been my Wes Anderson novel, about a cursed man who embarked on a journey aboard a submarine to try to find the legendary sea serpent Jormungand, in the hope that imbibing some blood from the monster would dispel his curse. At one point I did type out 30 or so pages for this project but sadly the document is now lost.

The Warhol novel is in development hell but I still hope to finish it someday.

Not included in this folder are my notes for So Below, a project I was working on in mid-2008 that was to have been my La-Bas. Mainly as I seem to have misplaced them.