it's not you I'm looking at...

illiterate

That's pretty much how I felt after reading David Markson's book, "Reader's Block". It's an interesting modern novel comprised of mostly literary references - and descriptions of how famous artists/writers died. It's not organized like a novel, just independent sentences that usually reference some literary classic I haven't read. So, needless to say, I felt pretty poorly read afterward. I really need to read Ulysses one of these days...and that one just for starters....

The really crazy thing is that Markson manages to tell a coherent story of a lonely old man wishing he had more connections and meaning in life - and his contemplation of suicide. And all that in just fragments stuck between quotes and death stories.