10th of December by George Saunders. read The Semplica Girl Diaries and Victory Lap in high school and was hooked. The title story and Puppy, too, are some of my favorites
Hands down, one of the funniest and oddly touching collections I have ever read. The titular story is one I think about often and recommend frequently.
It was about a week before I was supposed to leave home for college. My aunt had bought me a copy of that & a copy of David Copperfield, neither of which I had ever picked up. She said something about those two books being very important for a kid like me. I still havent read Copperfield all the way through. Dickens is too English for my taste. But on a whim, that night I opened up Catcher. I read it till morning. It’s cliché & corny, but I hadn’t experienced the feeling of encountering some sort of soul mate in a book until reading that book (and wouldn’t again until I got in to Kafka). I still love JD Salinger to this day. I just made my way through Franny & Zooey actually. Adored it
Get a haircut, get rid of some clothes you haven’t worn in years, get a new houseplant, get in touch with the changing season, get grounded, get stoned, get in touch with some old friends, get some ice cream, get going
Maybe not *the best* but it was certainly one of the more enjoyable movie theater experiences I’ve had. December 2019, went to a 6pm weekday showing on a whim after a friend called me to see if I could go. I knew next to nothing about the plot, didn’t realize the whole thing would be in black and white and screened in an almost-square aspect ratio, yet was enthralled for every second of it. Turned out to be the last movie I saw in theaters pre-pandemic.
