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The best books I read in 2011, listed chronologically

Another list and y’all can just suck my butt.

1. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth

2. What Hetty Did by J.L. Carr

3. Comet In Moominland by Tove Jansson

4. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

5. The Tiger by John Vaillant

6. Moving On by Larry McMurtry

7. Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

8. My Antonia by Willa Cather

9. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

10. Trust Me by John Updike

11. A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

12. Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

13. Herzog by Saul Bellow

14. The Wife Of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis

15. The Adventures Of Augie March by Saul Bellow

16. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (my favorite favorite of the year)

17. The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West

18. Blue Nights by Joan Didion

Tags: Philip Roth J.L. Carr Tove Jansson Evelyn Waugh John Vaillant Larry McMurtry Russell Hoban Willa Cather Arthur C. Clarke John Updike Jennifer Egan Flannery O'Connor Saul Bellow Janet Lewis Denis Johnson Nathanael West Joan Didion
January 01, 2012
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(Source: aquariumdrunkard)

Tags: Paul Newman Hud Larry McMurtry Texas American Manhood
November 02, 2011
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jspong: McMurtry. photo by Michael O’Brien.

jspong:

McMurtry.

photo by Michael O’Brien.

Tags: larry mcmurtry Booked Up Archer City
October 14, 2011
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Saw the always incredible The Last Picture Show this morning at the Music Box and it made me realize how much I’d like to look, sound, and carry myself like Ben Johnson. See how that hat sits on his head. I look like a kid playing dress-up when I try on a hat.

Saw the always incredible The Last Picture Show this morning at the Music Box and it made me realize how much I’d like to look, sound, and carry myself like Ben Johnson. See how that hat sits on his head. I look like a kid playing dress-up when I try on a hat.

Tags: Ben Johnson Larry McMurtry Sam the Lion The Last Picture Show The Music Box Texas hats American Manhood
October 02, 2011
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"All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed we live and what they lived we dream."

—

—Larry McMurtry (via leyendecker)

I hate to be That Guy for a second, but this quote actually comes from a book of critical essays called Study Out The Land by a guy named T.K. Whipple. Regardless, I copied this quote by hand from my paperback copy of Lonesome Dove and taped up the slip of paper on the wall of my bedroom in San Angelo last summer. It’s a good thing to keep in mind.

Tags: Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove America
September 26, 2011
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jspong: Jacy.

jspong:

Jacy.

Tags: The Last Picture Show Cybil Shepherd larry mcmurtry
May 16, 2011
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jspong: Brilliant. One of my favorite essay collections, and one of my favorite McMurtry books. His Walter Benjamin At The Dairy Queen, written roughly 30 years later, is a nice companion to it, and equally brilliant. I’m drooling over this hardcover edition. 

jspong:

Brilliant.

One of my favorite essay collections, and one of my favorite McMurtry books. His Walter Benjamin At The Dairy Queen, written roughly 30 years later, is a nice companion to it, and equally brilliant. I’m drooling over this hardcover edition. 

Tags: Larry McMurtry
May 04, 2011
5 notes

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