Read 43 books

I listened to it on CD while driving, but I would not have bothered finishing it otherwise. ...The House of the Spirits remains one of my all time favorite books.

I’ve mostly been reading short stories – O. Henry, Sherlock Holmes, New Yorker stories, and stories from For the Relief of Unbearable Urges collection (great book!).

The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis. I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe once when I was a kid and once more as a teenager – and wasn’t too into it either time. I picked up the Magician’s Nephew over the holidays and had a similar lackluster response to it. I most liked the parts where the animals discover jokes.

I read American Pastoral by Philip Roth and The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman in January. I think that puts me at 13, about 1/3 of the way there.

American Pastoral was good, but not my favorite Roth work by far. I think parts of the beginning were sentimental (to the author?) and unnecessary to the story. But those may have been my favorite parts. I really enjoyed The Third Angel. It got better and better as the stories progressed.

I am confused as to why so many female literary characters are explicitly beautiful. Maybe it makes slightly more sense in visual entertainment such as movies and television, but it seems a shallow theme for any medium. Shalimar, Time Traveler, Angel, Columbus, Pastoral (basically the bulk of the fiction books I’ve read since stating this goal) – all feature gorgeous women. I think it may be a blend of vicarious living with, possibly, mild narcissism. Audrey Neiffenegger’s female lead, for example, is a very attractive redheaded artist – Neiffenegger herself is a visual artist and a redhead.

I am not launching the complaint about the unfair beauty standard encouraged by our Hollywood and fashion magazines. And by the way, men prefer real women. And so on. I am just a bit puzzled. Are the mind and experiences of these women somehow more poignant given their aesthetics? Are adventures likelier to befall the stunning? I don’t resent them their beauty, but I’d like or dislike these women all the same without it.

*In American Pastoral, the characters’ beauty is pertinent to the story, so perhaps it shouldn’t be listed here.

I’m staying in Rockford for two weeks with my husband. He’s here on work, and I’m here to keep the hotel bed warm. I figured I’d take advantage of the situation and go on the sort of reading spree I haven’t had time for since my summer breaks from grade school.

I brought:

The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)
Life of Pi (Martel)
A Fine Balance (Mistry)

We hung out with some friends in Chicago the day I arrived and I greedily raided their bookcase:

Fiskadoro (Johnson)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Niffenegger)
Whatever (Houellebecq)
Bigot Hall (Aylett)
Survivor, Stranger Than Fiction, and Lullaby (Palahniuk)

I’m going to try to read as many from the second list this week, before I see her again and have to return them. Currently, I’m over half way through with Lullaby. I like Palahniuk because reading him is effortless – like watching a clever show on television, which I don’t mean as an insult. I was struck by slight resemblances between Palahnuik and Murakami as I was reading yesterday. Anyway, back to the books!

12/15 The books I’ve read from this list are in bold

3/43

Another good page-turner. I never go wrong when I pick up a Greg Iles novel. I highly recommend him.

I enjoyed this book as well. It kept me so interested that I read it in one sitting.

Read 43 books! It took me a long time I guess.

Gonna have to reach 100 now! :D

Cheers people.

I enjoyed this.. definetly a page turner

It was okay… I wanted to see how James Frey wrote fiction after reading “a million little pieces”. This book is different, thats for sure.