While it was Snowing

While I was out gallivanting in snow-drenched Wisconsin, here's what I'd been up to:

actually, not Wisconsin

I read this Kafka quote and was reassured by it:
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. 

I read Caucasia and Emily, Alone, James Salter's Light Years, and a few stories out of Joyce Carol Oates' curated anthology, Telling Stories.

I discovered the amazing fiction podcast from The New Yorker. My post on it here.

I saw the film, Lincoln. People are ga-ga over this movie. Honestly, I'm glad I saw it. I learned much. But it was so overblown and what bothered me most was the dialogue. Clearly this was a well-researched piece of work, and I appreciate that. (It's based on the lauded Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin). But I felt that every scrap of dialog was pedantic, meant to teach the viewer, to catch them up on what Abe and his family or political team have been up to until then. It felt unnatural. Also, there was no need to use five minutes to show Lincoln's death.

Our friends from the blog world have created a new site and blog, Typographical Era. Check out their lovely list of best books from 2012.

Our household acquired some new exciting books too:
Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise 
Joyce Carol Oates' Telling Stories
Steven Millhauser's short story collection, The Knife Thrower: and Other Stories
Wallace Stegner's Recapitulation
A ridiculous book of 1932 vintage called What is the Matter with New York
And, thanks to the new and exciting Typographical Era, I am also now in possession of Where'd You Go Bernadette

I also bought Rebecca Makkai's The Borrower. I had read this book before, on loan from the library. I loved it so much I wanted to own it, so when I saw it on the cheap at a used bookstore, I snapped it up. Now it is being "boarded" by snazzy old college pal and WRF reader, Jessica.

Did you acquire new books over the holidays? Which ones?