Motley Kamuka

My local bookstore has a zoom book club, so I thought I would try it. We read Orbital by Samantha Harvey, and I really enjoyed it.  I listened to it, which was a unique experience. I bought the book and when I got home, my library delivered the audio book to my phone. So I listened to it. Listening is good, because you just keep rolling, but I also space out and can fall asleep. So talking with 15, I just counted from my notes, and exactly right, was interesting. I love listening to others. I also found myself expressing myself, I thought I was pretty eloquent. I was in a book club at my children's school, and it was pretty good, then the social worker retired, and someone who wasn't good at running a book club took over and killed it. A new one started up, but she wasn't good either. My cousins are in a book club they've been in for like 15 years, and I wish I could get into it, but the invitation has never arrived. I really like book clubs, I should do more, I'm ...

From pp 402-760: P. 403 Ovatjimba "Ovatjimba are an indigenous, hunter-gatherer group in Namibia, particularly in the Kaokoveld region, who speak Herero. They are considered a marginalized community and face economic hardship. Ovatjimba, along with the San and Ovatue, are recognized as indigenous peoples in Namibia. Location: Primarily reside in the Kunene Region , in the semi-arid and mountainous north-west of Namibia, according to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). Lifestyle: Historically, they were hunter-gatherers, and although some have diversified their livelihoods, many still rely on livestock and crop farming. Marginalization: Ovatjimba are one of the most marginalized groups in Namibia, facing significant economic hardship and poverty, as detailed in a report by New Era Namibia." Google P404: “ In his electro-mysticism, the triode was as basic as the cross in Christianity. Think of the ego, the self that suffers a personal history bound to ...

Struggling with The Magic Mountain and Gravity's Rainbow right now, so maybe not the best time to launch reading projects, but after watching a bunch of Jane Austen movies, I moved on to Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch and Jane Eyre.  Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park (1814) Emma (1816) Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous) Persuasion (1818, posthumous) Middlemarch 1842. Jane Eyre 1847. Wuthering Heights 1847. Great Expectations 1861, then read all of Dickens. 

I'm ambivalent about Thomas Pynchon, I find him quite complicated. I've struggled so much to read GR, I'm on p. 402 of 760. I have read V, Vineland, Inherent Vice, The Calling of Lot 49, Bleeding Edge. I still have to finish GR, Slow Learner, Mason & Dixon, Against The Day. Inherent Vice is my favorite. He's 87 and most people pooh poohed any more novels, but it's looking like The novel, “Shadow Ticket,” is due out on Oct. 7 from Penguin Press! That puts a deadline on me finishing GR, I can push to get it read by the time this new novel comes out. I'm not exactly done with everything so it's not as urgent as perhaps other thirsty fans. R/ThomasPynchon is going wild. I gave a gift article of the Times report on Bluesky . I did the math, if I read 2 pages a day from now until October 7th, I'll be done with Gravity's Rainbow and ready to read the new novel Shadow Ticket when it comes out.