Daniel Silliman

Reading material

Current:
Camera Lucida,
Roland Barthes

For the year:
1. Prophecy & Apocalypticism,
by Stephen L. Cook
2. The Salmon of Doubt,
by Douglas Adams
3. Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
4. Farewell, My Lovely,
by Raymond Chandler
5. Ham on Rye,
by Charles Bukowski
6. The Inner Circle,
by T.C. Boyle
7. Breakfast at Tiffany's,
by Truman Capote
8. The Crying of Lot 49,
by Thomas Pynchon
9. The Poet,
by Michael Conely
10. As I Lay Dying,
by William Faulkner
11. Slumdog Millionaire,
by Vikas Swarup
12. 2666,
by Roberto Bolaño
13. Teaching a Stone to Talk,
by Annie Dillard
14. The Most Beautiful Woman in Town,
by Charles Bukowski
15. White Butterfly,
by Walter Mosely
16. The End of the Affair,
by Graham Greene
17. Fathers and Sons,
by Ernest Hemmingway
18. Into The Wild,
by Jon Krakauer
19. Close Range,
by Annie Proulx
20. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,
by David Foster Wallace
21. By Night in Chile,
by Roberto Bolaño
22. Killshot,
by Elmore Leonard
23. This is Water,
by David Foster Wallace
24. Public Enemies,
by Bryan Burrough
25. Breath,
by Tim Winton
26. The Savage Detectives,
by Roberto Bolaño
27. Loving Che,
by Ana Menedez
28. Ender's Game,
by Orson Scott Card
29. The Short Stories,
by Ernest Hemingway
30. Cities on the Plain,
by Cormac McCarthy
31. Charlotte's Web,
by E.B. White
32. The Selfish Gene,
by Richard Dawkins
33. Good Omen,
by Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman
34. Where I'm Calling From,
by Raymond Carver
35. The Armies of the Night,
by Norman Mailer
36. The Street Lawyer,
by John Grisham
37. Legacy of Ashes,
by Tim Weiner
38. Oblivion,
by David Foster Wallace
39. Seize the Day,
by Saul Bellow
40. Literary Theory,
by Jonathan Culler
41. The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian,
by Sherman Alexie
42. Slouching towards Bethleham,
by Joan Didion
43. War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,
by Chris Hedges
44. Flying Home,
by Ralph Ellison

Daniel Silliman

19.2.02

LAST NAMES-- Have you noticed the shift in the use of last names? Everyone's been going by their first name for quite some time now, that certainly isn't news. We stopped using them in the 60s, I guess. Occasionally we still use last names, mostly for teachers and doctors and people in some position of authority. The new thing, I think, is the use of last names for close friends.

Where you used to know everyone's family name and use the given names of your firends we have turned that on its head. Part of this is that last name's are endearing. I'm not sure why, but when we use last names we are pals, close and jocular. Today I know everyone's given name, but with many close firends I use the last name: McCallum, Gaetano, DeFusco, Stack. When people call me Silliman I get the impression that they like my name. I think the other part of this is just that last name's are interesting and first names are common, generally.

by Daniel Silliman @ 10:11 PM. : Comments 0