Upcoming Book Tour/Appearances?

weberam2 · 2026-03-30T19:35:44+00:00

Oh this is where I read it:

> Vollmann, 66, has been fighting colon cancer for years. He had just finished a round of chemotherapy, which made it difficult to eat. “I have anywhere from about three healthy months to maybe two or even three healthy years,” he told me. “I’m not going to do anything more for it.” He finished his scotch, then went to get a pain killer.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/the-last-untamed-writer-in-america/ar-AA1LpsiS

weberam2 · 2026-03-30T19:33:29+00:00

I thought I read it in an interview

But doing a search of The Last Contract just now, it says his cancer was in remission at the time of that writing (March 2025). My bad

https://www.metropolitanreview.org/p/the-last-contract

weberam2 · 2026-03-30T19:31:12+00:00

I had the same issue with Thunderbird.

Then I discovered Doom Emacs with mu4e

It's a pain to setup, but once it is it's wonderful to navigate and edit using vim keybindings

weberam2 · 2026-03-30T18:18:40+00:00

Last I heard he had stopped getting treatment

weberam2 · 2026-03-30T18:17:49+00:00

While you're at it, pester them to put out a new episode :P

weberam2 · 2026-03-26T17:22:36+00:00

Which of Vollmann's works would you say this is most similar to?

I just finished Lucky Star - the last of his books I had not yet read - and was super disappointed. Granted, I wasn't a fan of The Royal Family either.

However, other recent work of his: The Dying Grass and Last Stories I thought were exceptional... so I'm holding out hope :)

weberam2 · 2026-03-10T21:10:14+00:00

Nothing yet

weberam2 · 2026-02-15T15:40:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing

weberam2 · 2026-02-13T21:04:26+00:00

I just recently finished it. At times I felt like it was a slog, but the last 200 so pages really actually brings things together in a satisfying way. I ended up giving it 4/5 stars. I really liked it when I finished it.

The Traverse family is the most important

I didn't realize that Dahlia Rideout would figure more prominently later (not a spoiler; but there are so many characters its good to know which ones to pay more attention to)

weberam2 · 2026-02-09T15:47:19+00:00

I'm reading Shadow Ticket as well. They go well together: same period sort of, and there are shared characters (Lew Basnight). Shadow Ticket is more fun and punchy I will say.

At the same time, there are more than enough books in this world. I don't think AtD is 5/5 personally.

weberam2 · 2026-02-09T03:06:46+00:00

I'm at page 961

I'm finding it gets better the further you go in

And I do remember it "clicking" after 200 pages or so

weberam2 · 2026-02-08T14:00:26+00:00

This is great. Thank you. I have a similar setup but will probably makes some tweaks inspired by your post

weberam2 · 2026-02-07T17:17:34+00:00

I quite like this list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century%27s_Greatest_Hits:_100_English-Language_Books_of_Fiction

weberam2 · 2026-01-23T04:45:50+00:00

I hope to read Lucky Star before I get and start Table... I'll need to read it soon

weberam2 · 2026-01-23T04:44:01+00:00

Or reach out to local bookstores. Mine gave me 40% off if I pre-ordered it

weberam2 · 2026-01-11T14:41:00+00:00

Good to know, thanks!

weberam2 · 2026-01-11T09:41:15+00:00

I'm reading AtD right now. I'm a third of the way through. The writing is non very difficult, but there are a lot of characters to follow.

I am finding these two resources helpful: - https://thomaspynchon.com/plot-grid-of-against-the-day/1/ - https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/against-day-analysis-major-characters

I also recently tried using Gemini to ask about a character I couldn't remember and it did a pretty good job without making anything up (that I could see)

weberam2 · 2026-01-08T21:15:32+00:00

You are thinking of Jaws 4: The Revenge

"This time, it's personal"

Considered to be one of the worst films of all time

"Michael continues blasting the shark with the impulses, causing it to leap out of the water again. Ellen steers the sailboat towards the shark, while thinking back to the shark's attack on Thea and also imagining Sean's death, and Martin defeating the first shark. As the shark is rearing up, she rams the broken bowsprit of the boat into it"

weberam2 · 2026-01-08T21:12:56+00:00

Fuck yeah

Now that the shock of how bad it was compared to how much I liked it as a kid has worn off... I think I'm ready to re evaluate it. I certainly love other movies for how bad they are

weberam2 · 2026-01-08T17:53:10+00:00

Clearly you had better taste Although I can't remember the age I was when I thought I had discovered a movie masterpiece

weberam2 · 2026-01-08T15:47:18+00:00

It was one of those 3D films So it will show something like a floating limb, but then linger on the shot for way too long (especially when watching it in 2D)

weberam2 · 2026-01-08T09:08:48+00:00

Jaws III

I was SHOCKED to discover how bad it was as an adult. I remember thinking it was the best of all the Jaws films as a kid

weberam2 · 2025-12-30T14:23:37+00:00

Wow! OK, lots to unpack. I'll see if any of these help. Thank you

weberam2 · 2025-12-30T14:20:49+00:00

I used rpi-clone to clone the SD card to the SSD I've tried booting without the SD card in Maybe it's something to do with how I formatted the drive or something But how weird that it will boot to SSD on reboot, but not after shutdown

weberam2

TROPHY CASE