Is It Just Me?
Last night I was watching a 1968 movie called Wild in the Streets when I saw this on the wall of a teenager’s bedroom:
I think it’s supposed to be Dylan, but doesn’t it look like…? Gave me the creeps, rather.
Reading Report, January 2026
Books Acquired:
Journey into Fear, Eric Ambler
Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green
Books Offloaded:
Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green
The Wonder Effect, C.M. Kornbluth & Frederik Pohl
Progress Made:
A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick
The Undying Fire, H.G. Wells
Books Finished:
Journey into Fear, Eric Ambler
Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green
Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon
I was basically finished with Shadow Ticket in the first few days of the year, but for whatever reason I waited a few weeks to read the last chapter. Not because I expected some big twist or dramatic ending — Pynchon doesn’t really do that — or even because I was enjoying it and didn’t want it to end, though I was and didn’t. But something within me wanted to keep it suspended unresolved in midair, like The Sopranos.
Which is pretty much what I got anyway — ST ends with a letter from one of the supporting characters to the protagonist, wrapping up very little and broadly hinting at some idea of a sequel. Which may be something TP is planning, or just his idea of a funny way to end what may or may not be his last book. In any case, that concludes for now my sojourn to Pynchonland; Mason and Dixon is still out there, awaiting a chance encounter on some fateful day.
It was right when I had set aside Shadow Ticket that Everything Is Tuberculosis arrived unexpectedly in the mail, courtesy of Brother Cecil. This was not a subject I had known I was interested in, and in fact I was not really aware TB was still a thing. But Green is an excellent writer and his book was very illuminating and I ran through it in short order, then passed it onto the next person via the free box at my favorite cafe.
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