What I'm Reading These Days

I'm not reading much these days.  As I think about freelance writing, I'm reading more magazines than usual (Wired, Runner's World, Jane, Wooden Boat, the Atlantic are on my desk).  I just finished Father Joe for my book group, which is worth reading and in many ways inspirational and sweet, but has some narrative gaps and structural choices that make it an interesting discussion book.  We talked about the reliability of the narrator and the challenges of memoirs that discuss characters who are still alive.  We talked about omission and inclusion.  Interestingly, after our discussion (in which we agreed the author, Tony Hendra, was not completely trustworthy and certainly not likeable, especially with respect to his family from his first marriage, but had nonetheless painted a very readable and compelling portrait of his spiritual mentor) a member of the group forwarded us this article, about the author's alleged sexual abuse of his daughter.  Interesting.  The book remains a worthwhile read, and I think is even more valuable to read if you have smart people to talk about it with and can go a little beyond face value.

Read a Robert B. Parker book over the weekend; a Spenser novel that I picked up for $5.  It was slightly irritating, forgettable, and satisfying, as they all are.  Fun to read something so quick. 

I'm slowly reading Quicksilver, which deserves better than my edge-of-sleep nighttime pace.  Each night I open the book up and haven't a clue where I am, what's happening, or who is who, and have to go back about three quarters of a page until I remember the thread, and then I discover myself having dreams unrelated to the book before I've read two pages.  At this rate I'll be reading it forever.   Which is not to say I don't like it -- I do -- but that reading a novel about the invention of calculus when you're drifting off to sleep is a challenge.   I may have a chance to read a little while on the race committee boat this weekend, and perhaps I'll make better progress then. 

Next book group book is The Emigrants, by W.G. Siebold.  My little bookstore coffee shop didn't have it, so it's on order, and will displace Quicksilver when it arrives.  I heard an NPR interview with Nick Hornby the other day and felt a strong pull to read something by him, so I'll probably pick up About a Boy one day soon. 

Comments

[Milbarge]

As a fellow mix-tape maker, I would recommend Hornby's "High Fidelity" too.

[Scheherazade]

Silly Milbarge. I've already read High Fidelity, and discussed it here.

http://civpro.blogs.com/civil_procedure/2004/04/stay_of_executi.html

[Rayne of Terror]

I heard the interview w/ Terry Gross this week too. Hornby was really funny. Bob and I were both rolling around laughing after the anecdote about jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The baby didn't get it.

[Dylan]

You might just want to give up on Quicksilver. I had to slog through it, too. The Confusion was much better and snappier, but I bought System of the World when it was published nearly(?) a year ago, didn't pick it up for several months, put it back down after 50 pages, and picked it up again a week ago to intermittently slog through it.

The series has it's moments, but I'm not sure they're worth the effort.

[Milbarge]

Sherry, you have shamed me for not having memorized your archives. You've driven me to read Hornby's newest, about suicide.

[PG]

The Emigrants is lovely -- I read it for a class, but enjoyed it nonetheless. I suppose the whole mix of truth and fiction is old hat for a lot of people, but this was my introduction to it, and the photographs and other stuff Sebald throws in are so cool that the book ended up being a large chunk of my seminar paper (on how America appears to other).

About a Boy is the only Hornby that I have read, and I liked it tremendously. The movie's actually good, too, although I'm slightly annoyed that they changed the music from Nirvana to hiphop -- kind of messes up the title's reference.