This is one of those mornings when I have lots of good stuff to blog but sadly no time to sit here and put stories up. It feels like the right time throw the ball to youBeing away from my computer for a day in deepest darkest Alor Gajah gave me some much needed reading time. I finished Chiew-Siah Tei's Little Hut of Leaping Fishes am very much looking forward to meeting her later today. (I have of course much more to write about both author and book).
I am now reading Miranda July's short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You - two stories in, I am blown away by it.
And you? What are you reading? Any good? Go on, make me jealous ...
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Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee. I've never heard of the author before (she's Korean American) but was captivated by the cover design of the hardback. It's now available in trade paperback so I bought it the other day, along with Jhumpa Lahiri's new book. This is the first Korean American book I'm reading, and it's about family (what else?), relationships (Korean girls with non Korean boys), and about the yuppie world in the early 90s. Pretty good read so far.
And I'm also reading Malaysian Numismatic Heritage for work.
And lots of old documents at the National Archives.
Just completed 'The Remains of the Day' - loved it! Started Jeanette Winterson's 'Art & Lies'.
Kite Runner by Hossaini, and Jodi Picoult's Salem Falls..enjoyed her nineteen minutes very much.
Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. (Khaled Hosseini). Did not want it to end, actually sat there staring at the last paragraph, wishing for more.
About to embark on The Wisdom of Whores. (Elizabeth Pisani). Have to first mentally prepare to have one's opinions and beliefs shaken.
divisadero-michael ondaatje
Only after the children and husband have finished The Kite Runner (and one daughter has even finished A Thousand Splendid Suns) was I tempted to read it. Am Also enjoying Waveney Jenkins stories in The Planter's Bungalow as I met some of the planters and wives and children during her launch in London recently.
Yesterday I read - with a shiver and a sigh - a brand new nabokov short story in the 9 & 16 June issue of the New Yorker. Bless Dmitri for dragging the gem up from the very bottom of the Nova Zemblan barrel! I also blogged about it.
Virunga: Passion of Dian Fossey by Farley Mowat - a sympathetic potrayal of a very passionate, determined primatologist who died in her prime. It's rather surreal to read the book and be familiar with at least 2 central characters/primatologists since I've met them, and spent time with one of them in the field.
Doris Lessing's The Cleft. Found it very boring, not sure if I ought to finish it. Daniel C. Dennett's Freedom Evolves, which suggests that free will is the product of evolution. That one's good, but I'm not deep enough into it to decide how much water it holds. Some manga.
hi sharon, i am writing here for the first time although i have been checking your blog almost everyday for sometime now...its really very good. I have picked up the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafon from my library of unread books...has anyone read it?
Dean, I was about to respond by saying I just read that story, "Natasha" an hour ago! Another Russian beauty.
Right now I'm reading Mack Acito's Attack of the Theatre People. Hilarious! Almost a laugh a minute. The crazy things you get up to in college!
Sadly have to confess all I have read recently is Off The Edge -June ed.
Why - because I find that reading too much interferes with my process of writing, ie the more I read the less I write.
wah ... a lot of people reading khaled hosseini!
thanks more mention of the book i haven't read yet and some i didn't know about!
chet - i love old documents so i think what you're reading for work must be very exciting.
mel - "remains of the day" one of my all time favourites ...
ena - want to read that so much!
k - i went off to find out more about "the wisdom of whores" and found ms pidsani's very interesting blog. might pick this book up for myself. it would be very interesting to hear your reactions to the book.
kak teh - haven't even heard of waveney jenkin's book. tell more!!!
karcy - dennett is v. good - find the blend of science and philosophy fascinating. but he's not the easiest. read "darwin's dangerous idea" which i thought excellent. earlier lessing btw i think might be more readable and a better place to start.
dean and amir - thanks for nudging me - should have linked to that ...
lake shore - it's lovely to meet you. that's a novel i have on my shelf to read. i've heard very good things about it.
savante - that's such an intriguing title, had to go and find out more.
june - be familiar with at least 2 central characters/primatologists since I've met them, and spent time with one of them in the field. that must have been amazing. i really want to know much much more about your experiences ...
yusuf - i find that too and a lot of the authors i speak too say the same. words can't come in and go out at the same time.
Started reading The Devil's Bankers by Christopher Reich, despite this week's busy schedule with catering. And 2 Bahasa Melayu books, too. Greedy?
Just finished 'First they killed my father' by Loung Ung and 'Escape' by Carolyn Jessop.
I love both.. I love real life accounts.. Am now halfway thru 'The Kite Runner', which i love too..
Just finished Tan Twan Eng's The Gift of Rain. I absolutely loved it. Being a Chinese who listened to the Japanese Occupation accounts from my grandparents, the events in the book just make it more vivid and scary.
Also recently finished Joanne Harris' Lollipop Shoes which is the sequel to Chocolat. That was great too!
I am reading C.S Lewis' A Grief Observed and can't wait to start on Little Hut of Leaping Fishes. After last night, I'm just getting more motivated. :-)
I just finished 'Heading Inland' by Nicola Barker, and now starting on 'The Tax Inspector' by Peter Carey.
I can totally relate to what Yusuf/Martin said.. 'the more i read the less I write'. :P
I'm about 20 pages from the end of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer. Up next is The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, and then Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen.
Just finished Into the Woods by Tana French (the writing was superb, the premise intriguing, but from around page 220 onwards, it kinda fell through and frankly, a little alarming it was as though she'd - or he? - suddenly realised she needed to come up with a finish).
Started Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth and Shakespeare's Kitchen.
As for reading interfering with writing (and parenting), totally. I've not written a single word in a few weeks.
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Currently reading the following books:
Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Glad to know that you, too, had picked Miranda July's......so how was it?
amazing!! still not quite finished, savouring it ...
I stumbled here from a succession of truly interesting blogs! This is my first time reading yours, but I'm sure I'll be back. Couldn't help but comment here because I am so excited by just being able to pick up a physical book and read!
I live in a small city in China where it is difficult to get my hands on English books, so I read a lot of ebooks. Good, but not nearly so satisfying. I'm on vacation in the US and looking for good titles to pick up (especially by Asian writers) - why I ended up on your blog.
Right now I'm reading Beijing Coma by Ma Jian
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