Author: sjwillis

  • The Walking Tour, Kathryn Davis

    The Walking Tour Kathryn Davis Monday, January 15, 2001  The cover blurb for The Walking Tour leads you to believe that it is a story about two couples that go to Wales on a walking tour of the countryside. During that tour, so says the blurb, a fatal accident occurs. ItÕs not like the blurb lies about…

  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

    early 2000s? Not sure when i read/wrote this but definitely before 2002 I could be cynical as hell and say Hey, Annie! Ain’t this book already been written once by Hank Thoreau? But there’s little point in cynicism since it’s only really appropriate when the speaker has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about but is just…

  • Mrs. Dalloway, V Woolf

    Notes on Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf Wednesday, June 14, 2000 The story of Mrs. Dalloway unfolds against the metronome of Big Ben striking out time. Individual moments are made static against a fluid background of ever advancing time. And how does one reconcile the dissonance between memories of static moments against a reality that is…

  • Edisto, Padget Powell

    Saturday, May 6, 2000 Padget Powell, Edisto This is my third read of Powell’s Edisto and my first time really even coming close to understanding what is going on in the book. The difficulty, I see now in hindsight, is that the book covers so many different subject areas that it took me several readings to…

  • Paul Bowles

    11/19/1999 9:00AM It was around 10 o’clock by the time I got in last night. I was just getting back from a Moroccan cooking class, feeling full from several consecutive hours of North African feasting. The feverish flu that hounded me all day long was chased away by the distraction of food. Perhaps the cinnamon and…

  • Paul Bowles

    11/19/1999 9:00AM It was around 10 o’clock by the time I got in last night. I was just getting back from a Moroccan cooking class, feeling full from several consecutive hours of North African feasting. The feverish flu that hounded me all day long was chased away by the distraction of food. Perhaps the cinnamon and…

  • Sophie’s World, J Gaardner

    Sometime early 1998 I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Getting my arms around it, I mean. I finished Sophie’s World on the flight back from Key West the other day. It’s difficult to even try to give a synopsis of this book, not to mention which of its various facets I…

  • Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

    Late 90s? So I just finished reading Microserfs. First off a couple of things amazed me right away: the book was written in the early nineties and yet Coupland manages to avoid the starry-eyed view of the information superhighway that was sucking everyone in left and right back then. He sees all the technology around…

  • The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles

    June 5, 1998 After seeing this movie two or three times I decided it was finally time to read the book. I’d without hesitation suggest that if you haven’t already seen the movie or read the book you do one or the other or preferably both as soon as possible.  Lately I’ve been under a…

  • Galatea 2.2, Richard Powers

    Richard Powers: Galatea 2.2  (not sure when I wrote this, late 90s?) I don’t really know why I read. Usually i don’t even remember half the stuff that happens in a book that i read. It’s not even like i read all that quickly either. it’s more like i read a book the way I…