Lockdown Reading: Take 9. Results

A little over a month ago, lockdown restrictions were eased. The gyms opened, and I started tapping away at personal bests. The casinos and clubs were on hold, so meanwhile… you guessed it. I read books. As of today, pubs, bars and restaurants can serve indoors and indoor classes return to the gym. Hence, an update on books.

The 48 Laws of Power

I reviewed this psychology-based book here.

Bait: Off-Colour Stories for You to Colour

Chuck Palahniuk returns to the colouring-book format with Bait, a compilation of short stories, interspersed with line-drawing illustrations that you can colour if you like. Tales of sinister goldfish, celebrity faecal mishaps and terminally embarrassing parents will shock, amuse and generally haunt you for a few days after reading- like any good Palahniuk story should. Publishers Dark Horse, known for their hit comics, drew on a stable of 10 illustrators, whose previous work included art for comics Batman, Jay & Silent Bob, Daredevil, and designs for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Some illustrations merely accompany the details in the prose, others help to push the narrative forward, revealing twists, saying more than even Palahniuk’s words can. A great inclusion to the canon.

Fight Club 3

Chuck Palahniuk again teams of with illustrator Cameron Stewart for a second graphic novel sequel to Fight Club. This time, The Narrator- now fairly regularly going by the name ‘Balthazaar’- cheats on Marla with a Stephanie from ‘Die-Off Endeavours,’ a company presumably developed from the original novel’s anarchic movement, Project Mayhem. Meanwhile, Marla’s pregnant with Tyler’s abortion-proof baby, a picture-frame portal brings together a load of historical figures in an (accidental, I reckon) homage to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Narrator gets surgery to look ‘more like’ Tyler, which is as confusing as it sounds... oh, and Tyler creates a virus that spreads across the world.

Fight Club 3, released the start of 2019, is a weighty (hardcover), generous book, twice the size of Fight Club 2, but also twice as confusing. We learn more about key characters like Marla and Chloe, but I don’t feel like we learn what they are doing, what their roles are in this inclusion to the saga. Visual metaphors and huge leaps in space and time leave us looking for clues to the writer’s intent, but… the explanations, the resolutions- like so many supporting characters- are eventually exported to another dimension.

The Corrections

In the last 6 years, I’ve made several attempts to chug through this sprawling, infinitesimally detailed novel about a family not doing anything notable. The grandad Alfred develops Alzheimer’s. The grandmother Enid struggles to cope with his rapid deterioration. Their adult children, Gary, Chip and Denise go about their frankly boring lives. Chip is wheeling and dealing. Denise is having an affair, and tries to befriend her lover’s wife, ending in an affair with her too. Alfred’s bizarre Parkinson’s-induced hallucinating and ranting ramps up concern among all family members. Meanwhile, Enid tries to bring the family together for one last Christmas. The plot occasionally rise above mediocrity (Chip ends up in over his head with some very dodgy characters in Eastern Europe), but it’s largely standard soap opera stuff.

Beautifully written, but incorrigibly dull.

So, what about the gym? What did I manage?

I’ve started recording box jump records, literally jumping on top of boxes. I’m at 80cm at the moment. The next increment is a big one. Not sure I’ll ever attain it. I’ve also started extra-wide chin-ups, holding onto 2 forward-jutting handles about a metre apart. I’m at 4 so far. Another new movement is quad extension, coming in at 70kg.

Everything else, I’m kind of stuck where I was. There are further plans to release restrictions on 21^st June, so I plan to beat a few more PBs, get even more massive and read even more books before that date. That said, with the Indian Variant running rampage, who knows what could happen between now and then.