What are you reading? - Page 24

Cancer Ward, Solzhenitsyn
Journey of Man, Spencer Wells

Just about to finish Norwegian Wood by Murakami.

On deck is Out Stealing Horses by Petterson

A.A. Gill's The Angry Island

Chasing Cool by Gene Pressman formerly of Barneys New York

Macintyre: Agent Zigzag

Norwegian Wood ---> Norwegian author.
Petterson's book is probably the best thing to come out of an anaemic Norwegian literary environment, currently dominated by unimaginative crime-novels. I thorougly enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to reading "Riding Toward Everywhere" and "Poor People" by William T. Vollman. Currently reading "Scars of War, Wounds of Peace" by Shlomo Ben-Ami (thanks to Arethusa), should finish it as soon as I figure out where I left it; "The Commodore" by Patrick O'Brian; and (re-reading) "Prisoner's Dilemna" by Richard Powers. Oh, and kind of picking at the collected W.H. Auden.

Making so little progress on my two it's embarrassing. However, one evening this weekend I did pick up my dog-eared copy of T.C. Boyle's short stories: If the River was Whiskey, and enjoyed a few of his sharply-written stories.

True at First Light, Hemingway

Just finished Born Standing Up by Steve Martin - funny and interesting autobiography. In the middle of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read The Fountainhead and Anthem back in college, but somehow never got around to this one. Also, just picked up today at the used bookstore, Tabloid Prodigy by Marlise Elizabeth Kast. It's apparently the true story of young woman's time working at Globe Magazine and how she learned to get the dirt and write stories about Hollywood celebrities. Sounds like fun.

In the middle of reading " The Serpent on the Rock"

I just finished that book.

Right now I am reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.

Not trying to pick on you or anything, but how on Earth anyone can bear Ayn Rand is beyond me. The woman simply could not write. I was bored out of my mind by page 200 of Atlas Shrugged, this is coming from someone who is not adverse to long novels at all. I powered through, because I'm not really a quitter when it comes to reading, and gained absolutely nothing from the experience. The woman was a first-rate capitalist disguised as a second-rate philosopher who wrote third-rate fiction. Outside of the US she, thankfully, does not enjoy the same cult following she has here.

Just had to get it out of my system.

Yeah - it's pretty tedious, but I'm about halfway through, so much like you I'll eventually get finished.

I just finished Norwegian Wood last night and really enojyed it, albeit in a depressing way. I have been on a Murakami kick lately and need to read something different for a change. I started Out Stealing Horses this morning on my commute and already I am sure I will enjoy it.