Zack Haber

1. _______, by: _______ (_______ 2011)

In 2011 I went to see _______ read. It was fun. I enjoyed _______'s reading a lot! I bought _______'s book but when I read it I didn't like it at all! I couldn't even finish it. I think _______ tricked me with _______'s cuteness. I don't think I would have bought _______'s book if _______ wasn't so cute. Then again maybe I should take another look at _______'s book. _______ is very cute after all.

2. _______, by: _______ (_______ 2011)

I read a wonderful book released in 2011 called _______ by _______. I had been enjoying _______'s work for quite a long time; so when I moved to the bay area in late 2010, I was very happy to learn that _______ also lived in the bay area! I went to one of _______'s readings and I talked to _______. _______ was very happy to meet a fan and we agreed that we definitely had to meet up sometime. In 2011, after I read _______'s new book, I asked _______ when indeed would be a good time to meet up. Tentative plans were made. After a few days _______ sent me a facebook message saying: I noticed you read _______ and that you listed _______ on goodreads but you didn't give _______ any stars. Please give _______ 5 stars.

I explained to _______: I loved your book but quantifying how much I like books in terms of stars is not something I want to do. You should notice that I didn't give any books any stars on goodreads.

_______ then sent me a message that said: I worked very hard on _______ and you know it deserves 5 stars!

Then I sent _______ a message saying: I don't want to give books stars but I do sometimes write little reviews of books I like on goodreads and I'd be happy to do that.

So I wrote a little review. And _______ contacted me the day after I wrote the review. We met up and talked about poetry and I showed _______ some of my poems. _______ had very kind and helpful things to say.

3. Parallel Stories, Peter Nadas (Farrar, Straus and Groix 2011)

The hungarian Peter Nadas wrote two novels that are both in my top 20 favorite books ever. Easily. These books are the novels "The End of A Family Story" and "A Book of Memories." They are amazing. Read them. They are the kind of books that give you tingly feelings all over your body on every page. In every sentence.

When I heard that Nadas had written a 1,133 page novel called Parallel Stories, I knew I had to read it. I knew I had to read it in Austin, Minnesota; where my family usually convenes yearly at xmas time at my grandpa's house.

My mother gave me Parallel Stories for xmas. I didn't like it. It was really confusing and too much of it was too boring. Nadas' other books were also confusing but they were way more stylistically interesting. And they weren't boring at all. I gave up after page 156. What makes this even more depressing is that Nadas worked on Parallel Stories for eighteen years.

That year in Minnesota the temperature was about 40 degrees whereas most years I go there around that time it's around 10 degrees. I probably only had three conversations with my grandpa during the weeklong visit but in one of them he said he supported what the occupations were doing and that the wars were mistakes. My mother said it's great that he said that but if he really believes what he's saying he probably won't vote for a republican in the next election again like he's probably going to do. My cousin came for one day and the whole family played taboo which was so much fun! I met my cousin's boyfriend; they've been together for almost five years but I still hadn't met him yet. He was great. He laughed at my jokes and he was pretty funny himself and gentle too. He works as an emergency medic. My family often makes lots of sexual jokes and innuendos. It's really awkward but also hilarious. I'm really glad I like my cousin's boyfriend so much. Hanging out with my family was even more fun than usual. I went for a lot of walks with my mom and then some stuff became a lot clearer to me. I'm glad I gave up on Nadas and didn't use all my time reading some confusing boring book. I feel like, five years ago, I would have mostly ignored my family to read the book.