how a hamster reads palahniuk

so, i joined a gym and it only makes sense to me that a person (a person planning to sink 45minutes running this way or cycling on this machine for another hour) should plan ahead. it's a lot of time to spend in a room covered in mirrors–any direction you look in, you're going to get some unflattering, hamster-on-wheel version of yourself. to keep up morale on the voyage, and avoid looking at myself for two hours straight, i brought my book with me.

most treadmills, elliptical cross-trainers etc come with measly plastic ledges–what else could they be for, besides reading material? sure, it blocks all the big important numbers, but it only makes sense.it would make more sense, however, if it only worked with books that didn't have the dimensions of a large colouring book. the ledge isn't very wide, and there's nothing to clip your book in place.

my previous gym had a bin full of handy book clips. this gym is not my friendly downtown business-people-on-break gym. this gym is a gym for trainers. very tan trainers. i can't approach the front counter for juice or a question, without being asked "scheduling a tan?".

so, when i asked the bronzed goddess at the front counter if they had things to clip books to the machines... i sent her eyelids into hyper-overdrive. blink, blink, blink. more silence, before she she says, "i've worked here 8 years and no one has ever asked that". and after a precarious "no hands" workout, i went back with some bull clips.

two awkward, gigantic black clips; 'don't tip too far this way' balancing; blowing on a page to keep it from flying over the one i'm reading; and sticking out like a pale, sore thumb in a gallery of tanned "we eat lots of protein" thumbs–this is how i finished the new palahniuk novel (rant: an oral biography of buster casey) .

you can argue that all palahniuk books are the same. people have different favourites, and it's not because some are better quality than others: all it relies on is story preference, character preference, or just how much you done learned from all that man's research. it's true, palahniuk's tone doesn't change book to book. his lead characters have the same personality squeezed into different cirucumstances, different employments, statstics... but i think it's fair to say he's ripened in subtle ways.

some of his sentences, they're really well-crafted sentences. a few tiny bits make me jealous. i think his writing has improved, but he keeps it really low under the radar. some of them are such good sentences you don't really notice they're there.

it's less preachy, which god knows helps me through it. there's more focus on the story than on creating catch phrases, which are there, granted, but they're a bit better concealed. not so likely to be scratched on an angsty teen's locker.

it maintains the same organized appeal, the same amount of research that his former books have. palahniuk's stories have a lot of meat on their bones, which makes them some of the most satisfying summer reads in the summer reading genre. it's an interesting enough book, but that's what i'd recommend it for. if you've got some extra cash, you can buy it and then probably trade it in later for other books you want to have around permanently. if you can borrow it from someone, even better. it's nothing you'll ever brag about having in your collection, but you'd probably enjoy the read for what it is.

the cover design also makes me hot. just sayin'.

-
* recently purchased: no one belongs here more than you. stories by miranda july; against the day thomas pynchon; nasty bits anthony bourdain (yes, more summer reading); the slynx tatyana tolstaya; love in the time of cholera marquez (needed my own copy as the ex still has mine...)

* currently reading the slynx in bed & no one belongs here more than you is my gym book for tomorrow.