Friday 5: Five Best Things Shya Scanlon Has Read Recently

Everything is new again, so Shya Scanlon is serializing his novel, Forecast. Its 42 weeks over 42 blogs, which both honors the literary blogs while also throwing in some others to try and gain some new readers (I'm just guessing...nobody told me that's the exact purpose, but I'm sure that purpose is not disagreeable).


He got Kottke to sign on, so I'm impressed. The whole thing wraps up in a couple weeks and Shya recently announced that Forecast will be released "properly" (I'll let you define that word) in by Flatmancrooked.

Shya's "crazy" method has garnered him quite a bit of attention on the interwebs, but this interview with JacketCopy sums it all up nicely. In the midst of this, Shya was nice enough to tell us the 5 best things he has read recently (submitted about 2 wks ago):

5. An email from my dear friends Chad and Megan, saying they’ve gotten engaged.



4. About half of the pieces in AM/PM by Amelia Gray. I think many of the short prose pieces in this collection are terrific. She has an amazing sense of humor, and although there’s a bit too much filler in the book—I think her concept got the best of her—it’s well worth the read.

3. A Jello Horse by Matthew Simmons. It’s somehow incredibly concise without being dense, and highly emotional without being dramatic. It’s a remarkable novella.



2. The fifth chapter of The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. It’s mindbendingly funny. I’ve read the passage many times, and it still very nearly brings me to tears it’s so damn good. I first encountered it at a talk given by David Wilson of The Museum of Jurassic Technology, who read it aloud before giving a slideshow about miniature art. I thought I was on drugs.

1. Terese Svoboda’s Black Glasses Like Clark Kent. It’s a memoir and it’s a war story and it’s a mystery and it’s all told in a neat fractured narrative based on rhythm and breath.


And some housekeeping---I've done a few of these now, so does everybody like these from the authors? Or would you prefer a 'traditional' interview in addition or instead of? Let me know.