I loved this cartoon by David Maliki at Wondermark.com [found via and via]. (Go to website to see full size.)
Speaking of drowing in books - what are you reading now?
My current reads are 1) Lionel Shriver's harrowing We Have to Talk About Kevin which is our book club pick and 2) Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash which young Ted recommended to me one day in Kinokuniya when I said I fancied reading some more William Gibson. Who'da thought I would love cyberpunk? It's amazing what becoming a resident in a metaverse does to you.
More about both later, as well as about other stuff recently read and still being read around these two picks.
I have ADD, so I can't read one book at a time. I'm currently reading:
ReplyDeleteEvening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan(just loving it too), The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Summer that Never Was by Peter Robinson, and Fool's Gold by Frederick Lees.
William Gibson is good - one of his major characters became my online moniker for many years... "cayce"..
ReplyDeleteCurrently reading Madame Bovary. I've also recently finished off Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" - the title is a homage to the "Jungle Book". Highly anticipated, and due to be released in the States by the end of the month I think. The book is about a boy whose parents are killed, and is adopted by the occupants of a graveyard (as opposed to the animals in a jungle) and raised by them. Highly recommended!
Just completed 'The Gift of Rain'. Now reading 'The End of the Affair' (Graham Greene).
ReplyDeleteI have multiple backpacks and always forget to stash the current book in the right one so I'm always reading a couple simultaneously:
ReplyDeleteDon't Tell Mom I Work on the Rigs (she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse) - Paul Carter
Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle - J.L. Powell
Polgara the Sorceress - David and Leigh Eddings
Just bought Roberto Bolaño's The Sad Detectives as it was highly recommended by a sexy Mexican friend, who said it's the best Spanish-language novel of the past 2 decades. But the book is too big, so I am reading a PG Wodehouse I got second-hand yesterday instead.
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling through "The Rice Mother" in Italian, cos my Italian teacher loves it and thinks it is a simple book(!), hope to finish it by next year :)
ReplyDeleteIn the meanwhile, read "The Pleasing Hour" by Lily King over the weekend, and found it light but well-written. Am now starting on Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day", and finding it just a tad depressing. Simultaneously trying to finish "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us)" by Tom Vanderbilt.
Amir,
ReplyDeleteSavage Detectives lah...
I've just finished Murakami's What I think about When I Think About Running.
Damyanti, tell your Italian language teacher that The Gift of Rain is also in Italian. :La Donna Venuta Dalla Pioggia"...
ReplyDeleteWhat's The Rice Mother called in Italian?
Ooo, now I want to read the new Gaiman and Murakami.
ReplyDeleteAm reading The Drowned Book, Bahauddin the father of Rumi. Really Cool book.
Sure you're not buying books because there's a tax exemption ? :) also nothing says "nobility" like wall-to-wall bookshelves (and a crest!) :)
ReplyDeleteLife at 50 - for women
ReplyDeleteThe Secrets of Tofu
New IKEA catalog
Hari Kunzru's Transmission and The Ordinary Seaman (cant remember the author's name).
ReplyDeleteSince you're reading Snow Crash and have expressed a certain amount of interest in Stephenson I suggest you move on to one of his greatest works - Cryptonomicon. Snow Crash is okay but Crypt is better.
is it just me....i cant finid any graham greene books? any ideas where to find em...and if you know second hand ones that would be even better.
ReplyDeletei'm on a tight budget.
jawikistani - i have a few but very tatty old copies and you can borrow. otherwise try skoob Old Town, P.J. (Lot 122 & 123 Menara Mutiara Majestic, Jalan Othman)
ReplyDeleteand yes, someone else told me that Cryptonomican is better
Oh yes, savage! I was sad because I was hungry.
ReplyDeletesighh.. I am struggling to finish even one book this fasting month. Just can't seem to concentrate. Keep losing the plot and had to backtrack time and again. My usual quota is a book a week (I hv THAT much free time.. heheheh). Now half-way through "A Child's Book of True Crime" by a young Aussie writer named Chloe Hooper.
ReplyDeletewhich William Gibson did you read? i've only read Idoru, which I found so-so, but my customers keep telling me to read Pattern Recognition...
ReplyDeleteright now I just finished Peter Cameron's "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" and Paul Magrs "Exchange." The first, I'd recommend to anyone who enjoyed Catcher in the Rye. The latter is an interesting book for anyone who loves books :)
marineko - i read "idoru" and really loved it! keeps replaying in my head
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous:
ReplyDeleteThe Italian is "Madre del Riso". Only confusion is that in Italian "riso" also means "laughter"!
I will definitely pass on your recommendation to my teacher.
To those who are reading Murakami's new book, where is it available?
i want murakami's new book too!
ReplyDeleteMy friend is in Dallas and will be back next week...I've asked her to get to the new Murakami book in desperation:).
ReplyDeletekinokuniya should have it.
ReplyDeleteNot Madre del Risotto? :-)))
ReplyDeleteI'll make a beeline for Kinokuniya the minute I'm back in town...
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous
Risotto is when rice is cooked into a dish, so no, "Madre del Riso" is what it has to be:)
I'm not reading any books at the moment, because I can't find the money to buy them! Though top on my book wish list are 'Aya', a graphic novel by Marguerite Abouet; sort of like a sentimental version of 'Persepolis' but set in Ivory Coast. The other is 'From reverence to rape: treatment of women in the movies' by Molly Haskell to feed my film theory curiosity.
ReplyDeleteRight now? The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R Green.
ReplyDeleteyup - new Murakami book in Kino for 20% off
ReplyDeleteBooks I am reading/starting/just finishing:
ReplyDelete-That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx I think she is a powerful writer, like all her work but prefer her (& most author's) novels to the short stories.
-Can't wait to read Marilynn Robinson's new book Home- she is a literary Goddess.
-Just read "Foreign Affairs" by Allison Lurie. insightful and humorous, about a plain woman of a certain age and her affairs
NONFICTION
The Blank Slate STephen Pinker just starting, know it will be very interesting but keep getting into the novels first
No Mind Left Behind Adam Cox a book about executive functions (child development)very readable, informative and true, realistic & compassionate toward children
Whoopis Big Book of Manners (a book FOR children), previewing before bringing to school-very cute and useful I think.
Perfect Madness by Judith Warner- haven't begun reading this but looks quite interesting.
Freakonomics I am the last person on the planet who hasn't read this yet, looking forward to it but after Black Swan and Blink wanted to pause and let things digest!