[via]
Apologies for the delay. Help yourself to whatever you find in the Waiting Room. The Mistress will return soon.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Meanwhile, Back in the Waiting Room
[via]
Apologies for the delay. Help yourself to whatever you find in the Waiting Room. The Mistress will return soon.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Recommended Reading
Still trying to decide what to read during The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge?
Based on titles I've read over the past couple of years, The Mistress offers a few suggestions. See if something here strikes your fancy (besides the man in the photo, above.)
Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming (2014)...
You may know Alan Cumming as Eli Gold on The Good Wife. Or as the master of ceremonies in Cabaret. (If you haven't seen him in Cabaret, give yourself a treat and click here.) Or as the camp steward, Sebastian Flight in the Britcom, The High Life. Or maybe you've seen him introduce Masterpiece Mystery! for PBS.
So now that we've established just a few of his on-screen accomplishments, let's add author to the list.
In Not My Father's Son, Alan shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with a father who psychologically and physically abused him. Not for the faint of heart, the descriptions are absolutely Dickensian.
Interwoven into the tale is how he goes about solving a deeply buried family secret.
Though emotionally draining and at times disturbing, Alan relates his memoir with his signature wit and opts for a positive outlook.
"The truth can hurt," says Cumming, "but not knowing can hurt more."
Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (2014)...
If you're a fan of Roz Chast's angst-ridden cartoons in the New Yorker magazine, try her memoir on for size, in the form of this graphic novel.
Roz deals with the decline and care of her aging parents with dark humour and a sense of the absurd. You'll laugh. You'll cry. And if you or "a friend" are going through a similar situation, this book may bring much needed comic relief.
And it's all illustrations so it's like reading a comic book. Yay!
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puértolas (English translation published 2014)...
The title perfectly describes what happens in this whimsical novel. Looking for a light, fun read? You've found it.
READ MORE BOOKS, BITCHES!
Based on titles I've read over the past couple of years, The Mistress offers a few suggestions. See if something here strikes your fancy (besides the man in the photo, above.)
Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming (2014)...
You may know Alan Cumming as Eli Gold on The Good Wife. Or as the master of ceremonies in Cabaret. (If you haven't seen him in Cabaret, give yourself a treat and click here.) Or as the camp steward, Sebastian Flight in the Britcom, The High Life. Or maybe you've seen him introduce Masterpiece Mystery! for PBS.
So now that we've established just a few of his on-screen accomplishments, let's add author to the list.
In Not My Father's Son, Alan shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with a father who psychologically and physically abused him. Not for the faint of heart, the descriptions are absolutely Dickensian.
Interwoven into the tale is how he goes about solving a deeply buried family secret.
Though emotionally draining and at times disturbing, Alan relates his memoir with his signature wit and opts for a positive outlook.
"The truth can hurt," says Cumming, "but not knowing can hurt more."
Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (2014)...
If you're a fan of Roz Chast's angst-ridden cartoons in the New Yorker magazine, try her memoir on for size, in the form of this graphic novel.
Roz deals with the decline and care of her aging parents with dark humour and a sense of the absurd. You'll laugh. You'll cry. And if you or "a friend" are going through a similar situation, this book may bring much needed comic relief.
And it's all illustrations so it's like reading a comic book. Yay!
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puértolas (English translation published 2014)...
The title perfectly describes what happens in this whimsical novel. Looking for a light, fun read? You've found it.
READ MORE BOOKS, BITCHES!
Sunday, January 17, 2016
The Man Who Loved Reading: David Bowie's 100 Favourite Books
Wondering what to read during The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge? Look no further than David Bowie's Top 100 Books.
Bowie is said to have read a book a day. Top that Infomaniac Book Challengers!
Bowie called “reading” his gateway activity to emotional ecstasy.
The following is a list of David Bowie's 100 favourite books, in no particular order:
Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Iliad by Homer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Maldodor by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
Note: Thanks to LX for telling us about this book list.
Bowie is said to have read a book a day. Top that Infomaniac Book Challengers!
Bowie called “reading” his gateway activity to emotional ecstasy.
The following is a list of David Bowie's 100 favourite books, in no particular order:
Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Iliad by Homer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Maldodor by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
Note: Thanks to LX for telling us about this book list.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Bowie at the Infomaniac Cocktail Lounge
I don't know about you Bitches, but The Mistress could use a drink. Oh, bartender!...
What are you Bitches having?
[Photograph by Mick Rock]
We here at Infomaniac raise our glasses to DAVID BOWIE...
What are you Bitches having?
[Photograph by Mick Rock]
We here at Infomaniac raise our glasses to DAVID BOWIE...
Monday, January 11, 2016
David Bowie Statue
Several years ago, we here at Infomaniac proposed creating a sculpture garden.
And so, in memory of the late, great David Bowie, behold: our first work of art...
And so, in memory of the late, great David Bowie, behold: our first work of art...
Friday, January 08, 2016
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Reminder
Norma tries to break Mr. DeVice's 2015 record of 59 books...
A reminder that The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge is NOT a contest.
A reminder that The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge is NOT a contest.
Monday, January 04, 2016
Rights of Readers
Our Huggy Jon from Montréal has this to say about "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" ...
"I tried the first Potter but it fell of my hands around page 51."
Huggy Jon did the right thing by letting the book fall out of his hands after 50 pages.
If a book doesn't interest you after 50 pages, put it down and select another.
So many books, so little time!
No one is forcing you to finish a book you're not enjoying.
Remember THE RULE OF 50, as spoken by Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl...
"Give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up."
"The Rule of 50" works for The Mistress. Years ago, I was nearing the final chapter of a very long, boring book. I just couldn't face another page so I put it down before the final chapter and never picked it up again. I have no idea how the book ended nor do I care. I was wasting my time on a book I wasn't enjoying. From that point on, if a book didn't hook me after a few chapters, I put it down and picked up another.
The Rule of 50, Bitches! Make it your motto.
And while you're preparing for The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge, have a look at your rights:
The Rights of Readers
1. The right to read.
2. The right to skip.
3. The right not to finish a book.
4. The right to read it again.
5. The right to read anything.
6. The right to mistake a book for real life.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to dip in.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to be quiet and not discuss the book with anyone.
[source]
Click to enlarge...
NOTE: If you are over 50 years old, Nancy has revised her Rule of 50, so you don't even have to read that many pages before deciding whether the book is worth your time or not. Click here. Some simple math required.
"I tried the first Potter but it fell of my hands around page 51."
Huggy Jon did the right thing by letting the book fall out of his hands after 50 pages.
If a book doesn't interest you after 50 pages, put it down and select another.
So many books, so little time!
No one is forcing you to finish a book you're not enjoying.
Remember THE RULE OF 50, as spoken by Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl...
"Give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up."
"The Rule of 50" works for The Mistress. Years ago, I was nearing the final chapter of a very long, boring book. I just couldn't face another page so I put it down before the final chapter and never picked it up again. I have no idea how the book ended nor do I care. I was wasting my time on a book I wasn't enjoying. From that point on, if a book didn't hook me after a few chapters, I put it down and picked up another.
The Rule of 50, Bitches! Make it your motto.
And while you're preparing for The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge, have a look at your rights:
The Rights of Readers
1. The right to read.
2. The right to skip.
3. The right not to finish a book.
4. The right to read it again.
5. The right to read anything.
6. The right to mistake a book for real life.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to dip in.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to be quiet and not discuss the book with anyone.
[source]
Click to enlarge...
NOTE: If you are over 50 years old, Nancy has revised her Rule of 50, so you don't even have to read that many pages before deciding whether the book is worth your time or not. Click here. Some simple math required.
Sunday, January 03, 2016
Giving the Brushoff to Bestsellers
If you click to enlarge this photo and try to take your eyes off the cock, you'll see a stack of Harry Potter books on the bookshelf, behind his elbow...
[via]
Believe it or not, The Mistress has never read a Harry Potter book. Am I the only person in the world who has not read any of J.K. Rowling's oeuvre?
The following is a brief list of other best-selling books I've never read:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Nor have I picked up a paperback by any of these best-selling authors nor am I interested:
John Grisham
James Patterson
Danielle Steele
My general rule of thumb is this: If a book is located next to the checkout counter in the supermarket or drugstore, I'm not interested. A bit of a snobbish attitude but I'm wary of the hype surrounding bestsellers.
Nonetheless, these titles fly off the shelves so perhaps I'm not giving them a chance.
If I'm missing out on an enjoyable read in this list of titles and authors, let me know and I'll reconsider reading them.
Which bestsellers haven't YOU read?
[via]
Believe it or not, The Mistress has never read a Harry Potter book. Am I the only person in the world who has not read any of J.K. Rowling's oeuvre?
The following is a brief list of other best-selling books I've never read:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Nor have I picked up a paperback by any of these best-selling authors nor am I interested:
John Grisham
James Patterson
Danielle Steele
My general rule of thumb is this: If a book is located next to the checkout counter in the supermarket or drugstore, I'm not interested. A bit of a snobbish attitude but I'm wary of the hype surrounding bestsellers.
Nonetheless, these titles fly off the shelves so perhaps I'm not giving them a chance.
If I'm missing out on an enjoyable read in this list of titles and authors, let me know and I'll reconsider reading them.
Which bestsellers haven't YOU read?
Saturday, January 02, 2016
The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge
We are pleased to present The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge!
Several of you have stated that you want to READ MORE BOOKS in the New Year.
Mr. DeVice read an astonishing 59 books in 2015 and yet he wants to increase those numbers in 2016.
Muscato devoured 33 books last year and says, "as I've migrated mostly from paper to electronic books, it feels like I'm not reading nearly as much."
The Mistress managed about 50 books.
So we here at Infomaniac encourage you to get started. It's not a race and it's not a contest.
You certainly don't have to read as many books as Mr. DeVice, Muscato and The Mistress but try for as many books as time permits. Even one book every couple of months is better than none.
Reading enriches us, stimulates our imaginations, reduces stress, improves our vocabulary, and increases our intelligence.
So put down that remote control (with the exception of viewing Downton Abbey, of course) and pick up a book, dammit.
Every 2 months, Infomaniac will publish a post asking you to comment on what books you've read over a two-month period.
Note: The first check-in to see how you're coming along will be approximately March 1st.
Join the 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge! Challenge yourself to READ MORE BOOKS!
Several of you have stated that you want to READ MORE BOOKS in the New Year.
Mr. DeVice read an astonishing 59 books in 2015 and yet he wants to increase those numbers in 2016.
Muscato devoured 33 books last year and says, "as I've migrated mostly from paper to electronic books, it feels like I'm not reading nearly as much."
The Mistress managed about 50 books.
So we here at Infomaniac encourage you to get started. It's not a race and it's not a contest.
You certainly don't have to read as many books as Mr. DeVice, Muscato and The Mistress but try for as many books as time permits. Even one book every couple of months is better than none.
Reading enriches us, stimulates our imaginations, reduces stress, improves our vocabulary, and increases our intelligence.
So put down that remote control (with the exception of viewing Downton Abbey, of course) and pick up a book, dammit.
Every 2 months, Infomaniac will publish a post asking you to comment on what books you've read over a two-month period.
Note: The first check-in to see how you're coming along will be approximately March 1st.
Join the 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge! Challenge yourself to READ MORE BOOKS!
Friday, January 01, 2016
Filthy Friday - New Year Edition
Happy New Year, Bitches!
How do you think your 2016 will measure up?
How do you think your 2016 will measure up?