Tag: 95 Books

week thirty + thirty one

Books Read:
45. Davie Street Translations — Daniel Zomparelli
46. Guapa — Saleem Haddad

Kilometres Ran:
these weeks — 98.83
to date — 1,149.5

Purely by accident or fortuitous coincidence I ended up spending Pride week and the week following immersed in Daniel Zomparelli and Saleem Haddad and in hindsight I would have it any other way. Puns and/or innuendos unintended. Daniel is one of my favourite people. I’ve never met Saleem. I spent the midday last Sunday standing at the corner of Robson and Nicola watching the Pride parade and noting that it’s a lot more family friendly and a lot more commercial than I recall from years past. Maybe it’s crept up on me; I don’t remember noticing before (mind you I was out of town last year and missed it). I’m not sure how I really feel about this, or how I’m supposed to feel about it, but I’m curious to know how people within the community feel about it. Maybe it’s not a big deal. I do think that Davie Street Translations is an important historical artifact, albeit only a few years old, that deserves widespread attention. Guapa is the book that I was expecting/hoping that (the comparatively mediocre) God in Pink that I lamented back in January on here (week two) would have been.
week thirty thirty one
I’ve become a sponsored athlete, just in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics. They have nothing to do with each other. And not really. Not really at all. My employer has decided to subsidize athletic activity on a monthly basis, so I got myself a membership to the Robert Lee YMCA that’s just about a block from my apartment, and I’ve been swimming nearly daily for the past couple weeks. And I’m terrible. But I like that I’m terrible. I also like that I’ve managed to maintain a decent average running session and distance throughout this additional activity, though I’m exhausted. Swimming now brings back memories of when I first started running and I could only last a couple kilometres; swimming, I can barely last beyond a lap. It’s humbling, and I’ve fallen in like with it. I might even sign up for a lesson or two. But I’ll probably just keep on with my spastic splashing.

week twenty eight + twenty nine

Books Read:
43. The Strange Case of Rachel K — Rachel Kushner
44. Injun — Jordan Abel

Kilometres Ran:
these weeks — 91.87
to date — 1,050.67

The Flamethrowers is still one of my favourite reads of the past couple years so I thought that I would pick up this small collection of short stories (three stories in all) from Rachel Kushner and I expected some autobiographical or perhaps something along the lines of personal creative non-fiction but no. Don’t judge a book by its title either, it seems, as –spoiler (not really, not really at all)– Rachel K is not Rachel Kushner. At all. Cuba and colonialism and some other stuff. Not bad. Not near The Flamethrowers. Alas. And then there was Jordan Abel who is a rock star and one not just one of my favourite artists living and working in Vancouver but also one of the most nicest people I have the privilege of calling acquaintance. Which means we’re friends on social media AND we have met IRL and had friendly conversation that included beverages. That’s my standard that I just made up just now. Oh and his book is really great and you should get it and read it. Contrary to a few haters, conceptualism is not dead.
week twenty eight nine
I was out running and thinking, as I’m prone to do, and it occurred to me that it was just a little over a year ago that I had never in my life run farther than 10 kilometres. This think-and-run was just over 16 km and was my 80th run of 2016 and put my distance-to-date at 1,006.12 km. It’s been a while since I’ve run less than 10 km. My average right now sits at 12.57 km per run. This is my humble brag. I’m impressed with this change I’ve made in my life, amongst others. I’m about three weeks behind where I’d like to be in my goal, but it definitely seems achievable. This makes me happy. As I ran along the Seawall I passed a couple running by the Stanley Park totem poles. The guy asked, Do you live here? Me, Yeah. He, This is amazing. You get to run here all the time? You’re so lucky. Me, Yeah I am.