The List of Lists
Top Ten lists are gimmicky, trendy, political, highly subjective, and facile. So bring on the Top Tens of the year, beginning with Books. Here is NYT’s Best Books of 2008. I have been looking for a copy of Netherland by Joseph O’Neill for months, nada. The Lahiri and the Barnes are widely available. Otsu has read Patrick French’s biography of V.S. Naipaul—the man treated women in an appalling manner, but he gave his biographer access to damning material. Horrible, but brave. The Millhauser is at the Greenbelt branch of Powerbooks, whose shelves have been looking thin lately—when will the new books arrive?
Read History of a Disturbance by Steven Millhauser.Â
The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane lists his Top 10 Films of 2008. Lean year, he notes. Maybe the good stuff opens in December?
At Salon, Laura Miller’s Top 10 Books of 2008. Bolano’s 2666 and Mayer’s The Dark Side (Scarier than vampires: the war on terror that became a war on American ideals) are also on her list.
Robert McCrum names his Top 10 Books of the Year, with full disclosures of his relationships with their authors.
The Xmas rush was suspended until 1pm today as everyone in the archipelago was glued to the Pacquiao-De La Hoya match. For almost an hour I had the mall to myself. “Manny Pacquiao confirmed his status as the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer last night with a stunning, lop-sided victory in Las Vegas over Oscar De La Hoya. . .Lighter, shorter and less illustrious, Pacquiao was billed as De La Hoya’s inferior in multiple ways but when the boxing started he was so superior that this hugely anticipated contest rapidly developed into a ritual humiliation.” Pacquiao masterclass stuns De La Hoya in the Guardian. Does the Arroyo administration know how much it owes Manny Pacquiao for its continued employment?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 7th, 2008 at 19:30
Have been looking for Netherland, too. Got Amsterdam by McEwan instead. The short novel is about modern hubris, very very modern and down-to-earth view of brilliant humans.
December 8th, 2008 at 22:04
I was planning to run away to the malls myself. Though the roads are deserted, I realized many malls are showing the fight live at their cinemas so I backed out. I intentionally didn’t turn on the tv all day and night. Knowing how many people would be watching this main event, I began to wonder: What will this latest feat of Pacman do for us as a nation,really? Will it help our troubled economy? Will this in any way help change our rotten image in the international community? Will this… never mind. Watched the news today, saw the usual interviews, the post-fight discussions,the lavish celebrations in the US and here, etc… Is there a recession in the US or what? MGM Grand is looking grander than ever. Everybody has an opinion. As expected, the same undesirable local political faces sharing the limelight with Manny. I personally thought DLH would win. Happy to be wrong. Manny, please DO NOT re-enter politics again. I’m expecting that when he returns, he would be doing all these talks for GMA and her minions again. He’d say again, “Magkaisa na tayo”, which is the most abused battle cry in this country. If only life is as simple as a boxing match. Then, I bet he’d be guesting in stupid sitcoms and noontime shows of the two rival networks again, and then endorsing everything from beer to prepaid cards, etc, and making another karaoke album (!) Manny, you are a god. You are above all these. And beware of hangers-on. THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY, or they want to be seen and photographed with you. In the end, trust only yourself, and your lightning fists.