Liquid Thoughts

New name and new site for blog

2011-02-11T08:21:00.003-05:00

I have moved my blog here http://knowthyself-mb.blogspot.com/

Hope to hear from you all soon.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

2011-02-09T21:50:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine gave me the Vintage UK edition of The Snowman a couple months ago. I've read a number of Nesbo's Harry Hole series, but kept putting this one off, likely because it was too dark for me. I wanted lighter fair. But after reading Ken Bruen's The Guards, I wanted some more gritty storytelling and Nesbo was just waiting to be picked up. If you haven't read any of the Harry Hole novels, Harry Hole is an alcoholic, work obsessed detective in Oslo. He's unpredictable and brilliant. The perfect combination. The stereotypical qualities of Hole don't do his character justice. He certainly reminds me a lot of Bruen's Jack Taylor, but has a lighter side than Taylor. But nothing about these crime novels are light. It's winter in Oslo and someone is using snowmen as calling cards for murders they're committing. It's not as funny as it sounds.

The snow in the garden reflected enough light for him to make out the snowman down below. It looked alone. Someone should have given it a cap and scarf. And maybe a broomstick to hold. At that moment the moon slid from behind a cloud. The black row of teeth came into view. And the eyes. Jonas automatically sucked in his breath and recoiled two steps. The pebble-eyes were gleaming. And they were not staring in the house. They were looking up. Up here. Jonas drew the curtains and crept back into bed.

With setting, mood and gifted storytelling, Nesbo is creating a monster (snowman and killer) that has provided me with more than one anxious moment. My lunchtime reads are now spinetinglers, literally. And I know one thing for sure. You can now add snowmen to the list of one time cute and funny 'things' that now scare the crap out of me. Snowmen and clowns. Brrr

Recently read

2011-02-08T10:15:00.002-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks I've raided the library and read Ken Bruen's The Guards, Jacqueline Winspear's The Mapping of Love, Nicola Upson's Angel with Two Faces, Charles Finch's A Stranger in Mayfair, and David Stuart Davies The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Veiled Detective.

That's one drunken former Irish cop, two British female detectives in the 1930s, one fancy Victorian detective and new member of Parliament and a sinister twist on the Holmes and Watson relationship.

On my TBR list for this week and next is Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, Ruth Downie's Medicus, and likely another in Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series.

Currently listening to:
Glen Gould's The Goldberg Variations

The Rossetti Letter

2010-09-14T07:29:00.000-04:00

In The Rossetti Letter, Claire Donovan is a Ph.D student at Harvard finishing her dissertation on Alessandra Rossetti and the letter she supposedly wrote to the Venetian officials warning them of the so-called Spanish Conspiracy.

Narrative shfits between present day Venice with Claire and her research and 1618 Venice, where Alessandra is a young single woman and one of Venice's most popular courtesan's. The two narratives, from two different eras is still an exciting tool for any author trying to make history come alive. But in The Rossetti Letter it feels too familiar. Nothing about the characters, setting or theme is original. As a reader, ther are two things I ask of from a book: something original and a protagonist I like. The protagonist may be a killer, see Edward Glyver in Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night, but I have to like the protagonist enough, to care enough to take time out of my day and follow them as their story unfolds.

On the advice of her best friend, Meredith, Claire is chaperoning a 14 year old, Gwen, on a week long trip to Venice. This gives Claire the opportunity to attend a conference and conduct some much needed research. However, Andrew Kent, famed historian from Cambridge, is giving a lecture at the conference that could possibly debunk Claire's dissertation.

Though the paperback copy I read is 434 pages long, I read the book in about three days. That's both good and bad. Good because it was a quick, effortless read. Bad because I didn't want to spend anytime with the book or the characters...for a number of reasons.

What threw me right away, was Claire's lack of knowledge about the competitive field of history that she was working and studying in. How could Claire not know who Andrew Kent is? He's a famed historian and he's writing a book on the same subject as her. Once she found out that he was speaking at the conference, wouldn't she have gone on-line to try and find out about him? Nope. She actually thinks he's a woman, named Andrea Kent. Great research from a Harvard Ph.D candidate.

The rest of the story falls in place like every other cliche book or movie. In fact, I saw this more as a movie than a book. The same feelings I had after reading The Da Vinci Code or any Steve Berry book. Cliched themes, cliched writing, cliched characters. The paperback copy has a good cover design and it the back cover copy makes the book sound interesting enough...but don't judge a book by its cover.

The Redeemer redeems itself

2010-09-08T07:52:00.000-04:00

My initial reaction to Jo Nesbo's The Redeemer, was disappointment. I had liked The Devil's Star so much, but the seemingly disjointed narrative of The Redeemer, was off putting. I like novels that attempt to take on a new narrative thread, creating narrative forms to add dimension and a story. Life isn't linear. Life, like dreams, does not follow a straight line and I appreciate narratives that don't follow in line. However, Nesbo's narrative was confusing. There wasn't enough separation in the narrative breaks. It took me a full paragraph or page to realize who the narrative was following.

But then all my initial problems with the style faded away. I became engrossed in the story and the cast of characters. I like thinking while I read, but I don't like trying. And for the first half of the book, I had to try and follow the leader. Once I got past that point and just read and enjoyed, I started to fly through the book.

Croatian hitmen, Norwegian Salvation Army intrigue, Harry Hole, alcohol and women. Great story.

Cleaned the pantry and kitchen and bought some books

2010-09-04T22:38:00.000-04:00

After breakfast, I cleaned our kitchen and pantry. Reorganized. Then did lots of nothing. It was a gorgeous day, so my wife willingly went to the book store with me. Traded in many; purchased some more.

A Drink Before the War Dennis Lehane The first in the Kenzie/Gennaro series.

The Given Day Dennis Lehane Epic. Boston.

Venus in Copper Lindsey Davis Can never get enough of our man on the case, Marcus Didius Falco.

Deadwood Pete Dexter Called by some the best Western ever written.

The Rossetti Letter Christi Phillips Mystery and intrigue in 17th Century Venice.

No Name Wilkie Collins Dickens called it his best.

Armadale Wilkie Collins Two men. One name.

Remembering Laughter Wallace Stegner Stegner's first novel.

Joe Hill Wallace Stegner Hero of the people or murderer?

Nearly another year has come and gone

2010-09-03T08:33:00.000-04:00

Nearly a full year has past since I last posted on this blog. And although I've still been reading many of your blogs, I haven't been too active in the blogging community. With a one year old running around, my time management has been a bit one-sided. I've been reading, and reading a lot, over the past year. Mostly mysteries still, but littered with some history, travel and a couple bios. I'm still on a Sherlock Holmes kick (just finished A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullum,) but have also tasted my first Jo Nesbo, the entire Stieg Larsson trilogy and today I began Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder. I can't wait to begin sharing my thoughts on my daily reads and hope that you'll attempt to tune in again.

Day of the Assassins review

2009-10-02T14:30:00.000-04:00

I don't read YA. Now I know why. Though YA novels seem to be picking up popularity amongst adult readers, I don't think I'll become part of that phenomenom. There are just too many problems with the quality of the writing, let alone the storyline. I accept time travel as a sci-fi plausibility. That has nothing to do with problems with the adventure novel.

Day of the Assassins follows the adventure of the teenager, Jack Christie as he travels back in time to 1914, before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

Traveling back in time, Jack first gets caught on a ship with huge crates and large guns. Why is the narrator pointing out 'fifty-eight-ton gun barrels" and the smaller "twelve-pounder guns." Does Jack know what they are? Jack doesn't like like school or history much (though he plays a WWI video game) so I don't know if he's supposed to know what a fifty-eight ton gun barrel looks like. Is the reader supposed to know what they are? I know there are teens out there with far greater knowledge of war and weapons than myself, but I wonder if they have the faintest idea.

My wife complains that I pick out the inconsistencies of movies and feel that I have to let everyone else watching, know that such and such didn't happen or couldn't have happened. Good thing she couldn't have heard my thoughts as I read this book. She would have thrown it at me.

However, I do know who would be perfect to review this book...my 14 year old goddaughter and maybe that's the point. It was written for her and her schoolmates. Not a thirty-year old picky reader.

Library Book Sale

2009-10-02T09:30:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday morning, my sister and I were up early to get to the quarterly Medford Public Library Book Sale. The sale, held partly outdoors (mass market paperbacks $.50 ea.) and partly in two old garages behind the library, has become a must visit for me. During my last trip, I came away with a first edition Shadow of the Wind and a few other collectible books. And since I'm not collecting much anymore, I was able to spend some cash on some paperbacks. For $10.50 I got 11 books. Nice days work.

A few of the key finds were:

The Art of Detection by Laurie King
A Monstrous Regimen of Women by Laurie King
The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd

I'm halfway through The Darwin Conspiracy and although it's Possession-lite and not nearly as enjoyable as I was hoping, it's still a good lunchtime read.

The Brutal Telling

2009-09-25T08:23:00.000-04:00

I've read Carolyn Hart and Joan Hess. They write 'cozy mysteries'. I had heard about Louise Penny's cozy mystery series featuring Montreal detective Inspector Gamache, but had never read one until I received the ARC for her latest, The Brutal Telling. This is no cozy mystery. It is a dark, complex mystery that has all the trappings of a cozy mystery (small town, fireplaces, B&Bs, etc.)but Penny doesn't follow the formula. Though Gamache is a different type of inspector for me (he's quite, friendly and thoughtful,) Penny makes good use of him and his team of investigators.

With a story line of a dead body found on the floor of the popular restaurant, the story could have petered out and become tiresome quickly. However, although nobody in the town says they know the stranger, the reader knows this isn't true. But we don't know if the person that knew the stranger actually committed the crime. Though investigating a crime in a small town where everyone knows one another is often times like trying to unravel a knot of Christmas tree lights, Gamache and his team see beyond the niceness and uncover a secret that unfortunately shows that greed and murder do not stop at the city limits.

BBAW Reading Meme

2009-09-16T10:04:00.000-04:00

Today I stole another Meme. This time from Marie at The Boston Bibliophile and SFP at Pages Turned.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack? my fingernails

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? I used to all the time, but I have become lazy.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? I dog-ear and mostly use pictures of my wife and daughter.

Laying the book flat open? for brief intervals only.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both? mostly fiction, but I wouldn't be complete without non-fiction.

Hard copy or audiobooks? Books only please

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point? I don't think I've ever intentionally stopped at the end of chapter. Seems a strange way to think about reading. The end of a chapter isn't the end of the story, so what's the difference?

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? I've never looked up a word from a book I've been reading. If I don't know the word, it doesn't matter to me. Plus, I don't like reading books in which the author uses 'fancy' words when simple ones will do.

What are you currently reading? The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny and Justice Hall by Laurie King

What is the last book you bought? A stack of Little Golden Books for my daughter.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time? No matter how much I try to read a couple books at once, I always end up dedicating my time to one book and one book only.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read? My couch at night.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books? series. It allows for fun character development.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over? I have stopped trying after having many loved ones throw books at me.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?) The books I collect, I categorize by author's last name. My other books, I categorize by author only.

Louise Penny - Brutal Telling

2009-09-14T10:22:00.000-04:00

I'm making my way through Louise Penny's Brutal Telling, the second of three ARCs I have to review this month. This book has become my lunchtime reading so it may go a little slow, but it is certainly a much better novel than Barclay's Fear the Worst. I've never read Penny before so this is my first Inspector Gamache mystery. I really like the detective so far and the small town Canadian setting is a different read for me. I can't wait to get deeper into the investigation and enjoy some more of Penny's great writing.

I've taken on another Mary Russell novel as well. Laurie King's Justice Hall, sends Holmes and Russell to Justice Hall, an elegant, elaborate and enormous estate to help two old friends uncover the truth about what happened to their nephew. I don't know what to say about King's Mary Russell series that hasn't been said before. All I can really say is that they are perfect reads.

Fear the Worst

2009-09-11T08:05:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I was thrilled to receive my first Review Copy from LibraryThing. I snagged Linwood Barclay's new thriller, Fear the Worst.

Tim Blake is Barclay's everyman and the driver of all the action. Blake is a divorced car salesman and father of a teenage daughter, Sydney. One day, after a brief argument over breakfast, Sydney never comes home. Weeks go by with no leads. What's a father to do? Well, like most good action heroes, Blake takes it into his own hands. He relentlessly retraces Sydney's last steps, continuously going by the hotel where she worked, her picture constantly in hand. Though Blake is a likable character, I couldn't help but be reminded of Frank Bascombe from Richard Ford's Independence Day and Liam Neeson's character from the movie Taken. I think Barclay got Blake right, but missed out on bringing real tension to the plot. The 'bad guys' aren't bad enough (like Eli Wallach said in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.")and the reason for Sydney's disappearance wasn't believable enough for me.

Worst of all was the cliche climax. A bridge at night, unlikely suspects, guns being kicked away, just out of reach. It seems as though Barclay was writing a movie script and they put it between covers and called it a book. This isn't always a bad thing. The book was fast and it was fun and I may read Barclay again, but I won't be passing Fear the Worst on to anybody that hopes for the best.

2009-09-04T08:59:00.000-04:00

This is one of the saddest stories I've read in a long while.

ARCs to review

2009-09-02T15:05:00.001-04:00

I just began reading See Delphi and Die, my first Marcus Didius Falco mystery, but I have a small pile of ARCs beginning to pile up on the bedside table, eagerly waiting to be reviewed. I think it's time that I turn my attention to some books and authors that I want to review. First up will be Linwood Barclay's Fear the Worst. I got this from Library Thing a month or so ago. Second on the list is My Cousin Caroline by Rebecca Ann Collins. It's book six in the Pride and Prejudice sequel series, but it'll be my first time reading the series. I got this book via BookBlogs.ning. The third book on the list, is Louise Penny's Brutal Telling. It's Penny's new Inspector Gamache mystery.

I don't post typical reviews to begin with, but it's time to get my reviewing brain on and stop procrastinating. There are some good books waiting to be read!

Life and Books Meme

2009-08-27T09:13:00.000-04:00

Since I've been laying low the past few weeks, I thought I'd try and get back into the swing of things with a fun meme that I saw over at Of Books and Bikes.

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: My Life and Hard Times (James Thurber)

How do you feel: The Unburied (Charles Palliser)

Describe where you currently live: Back Bay (William Martin)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Harvard Yard (William Martin)

Your favorite form of transportation: Ghost Walk (Marianne Macdonald)

Your best friend is: The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Laurie King)

You and your friends are: The Sunday Philosophy Club (Alexander McCall Smith)

What’s the weather like: The Night Calls (David Pirie)

You fear: The Last Judgement (Iain Pears)

What is the best advice you have to give: Die Trying (Lee Child)

Thought for the day: Die Once (Marianne Macdonald)

How I would like to die: One Shot (Lee Child)

My soul’s present condition: Death and Restoration (Iain Pears)

My responses were fairly limited even though I've read 33 books so far. I guess that's what happens when you read the same authors all the time.

Comfort reading

2009-08-05T10:51:00.000-04:00

Like my mom's meatloaf, reading a familiar author is comforting. I've been going through a life changing event the past few weeks, but I still crave the written word. I still seek the written word to comfort and placate my worries. My reading meatloaf, yes, my reading meatloaf, is William Martin. Martin's books are full of New England history, incredibly detailed family histories and characters that are oftentimes larger than life. With titles like Harvard Yard, Cape Cod and Back Bay, they may sound a touch prosaic and fluffier than they really are. However, that's a disservice to Martin's skill as a storyteller. Each novel is epic in length and follow a similar format mixing stories lines taking place in the present day and in the past.

Whether Martin searching for lost copies of the American Constitution or tracking down a tea set made by Paul Revere, Martin only uses the 'thing' as a MacGuffin. The true story and the true fun resides in the characters faults, failures and heroics as they chase each other across the New Hampshire mountains, down the cobble stoned streets of old Boston and across the centuries.

With the birth of my daughter a couple weeks ago I couldn't settle on a book to read. Then I saw Martin's Cape Cod on my top shelf. It was perfect. Each time I open the large novel, I smell the salty waters of the Cape and I think of my mother's meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Two weeks later

2009-08-03T08:41:00.000-04:00

I'm not getting too much sleep, but I'm hopefully getting back into the reading and writing flow. The first book I'm reading P.B. (post baby) is William Martin's Cape Cod. I've really enjoyed all his other novels, especially Harvard Yard and Back Bay. He's a Boston based writer and being a local myself, I enjoy reading great stories about my 'neighborhood,' i.e. Massachusetts.

On the side I'm reading Laurie King's Justice Hall. I just couldn't stay away from Mary Russell too long.

2009-08-03T08:39:00.000-04:00

I knew I liked Lee Child and Jack Reacher for a reason. Here's a quick article abour Lee Child creating a scholarship in Jack Reacher's name. He even has a beer named after him.

Big News

2009-07-20T12:13:00.000-04:00

I might be out of commission until next Monday. I don't think I'll be reading or blogging much over the next week because on Friday, July 17, my wife and I welcomed our first baby, Ava Celeste Barresi!

Happy blogging!

Frank McCourt is ill and unlikely to survive

2009-07-16T11:53:00.000-04:00

This is sad news to hear. I loved Angela's Ashes when it came out and I think McCourt did a great service to the reading public. His memoir/novel was a phenomenon before The DaVinci Code.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

2009-07-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

Just in time for the Everything Austen Challenge. Quirk Books is set to release a follow up to their surprise hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Juliet Marion Hulme

2009-07-15T09:57:00.000-04:00

Last night I broke the news to my wife that I had bid on a batch of 10 Anne Perry novels. Four or five hardcovers and the rest paperbacks. A mixture of her William Monk, Thomas Pitt and WWI series. For $10 or $11 I thought it was a steal. For whatever reason I decided to Wikipedia Anne Perry. Wow. I knew Wikipedia was good for something. Anne Perry was born Juliet Marion Hulme in London, was sent to South Africa as a child (for health reasons) and then moved to New Zealand at 13 to be with her family. Perry/Hulme then became part of one of New Zealand's most notorious murders along with Pauline Parker. If you've ever seen the Kate Winslet movie Heavenly Creatures , Kate Winslet portrayed Perry/Hulme. The young women killed Parker's mother in cold blooded murder. They only served five years in prison and as part of their sentence they were told they could never contact one another again.

Perry/Hulme is now 70 years old and lives in Scotland and has written dozens of murder mystery novels. Strange. I had recently begun her novel No Graves as Yet which centers around two brothers trying to unravel the suspicious death of their parents. There is more to the story than that, but I just can't get the real Perry/Hulme out of my head. How can I? I wouldn't read the books of a man that was a convicted murderer, why should I read Perry's novels?

I'm stopping No Graves and I'm going to begin a book by someone that doesn't have a killer instinct, only a killer imagination.

It's a good thing I didn't win the auction on eBay.

Everything Austen Challenge

2009-07-13T11:33:00.000-04:00

I've finally narrowed down my selection for the Everything Austen Challenge hosted by Stephanie's Written Word.

I haven't read Austen in awhile so I will read one Austen novel, three Austen inspired books and two movies.

Lost in Austen - movie
Jane and the Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron - novel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - novel
Austenland by Shannon Hale - novel
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith - novel
Emma - movie

Books bought last week

2009-07-13T09:15:00.000-04:00

I had a good book buying week. A few Sherlock Holmes pastiche, two bibliomysteries and a book for the Everything Austen Challenge.

Castle Rouge A Novel of Suspense featuring Sherlock Holmes, Irene Adler, and Jack the Ripper.
Death at Dartmoor A Victorian mystery featuring Arthur Conan Doyle.
Locked Rooms The eighth book in Laurie King's Mary Russell series. Russell and Holmes travel to San Francisco to take care of some unfinished business.
Jane and the Man of the Cloth The second book in the Jane Austen Mystery series. Jane Austen solving crimes? Sounds like a good fit for me in my attempt at the Everything Austen Challenge. I haven't read the first book in the series yet, but I'm going to read this one first because I have it.
The Godwulf Manuscript I got a nice condition 1973 paperback edition of Parker's classic bibliomystery. It's the first in the Spencer series. And although I've already read it, this is going in my collection.
A Conspiracy of Paper I read part of this novel years ago when it first came out. I think it high time I take it on again and finish it once and for all. Benjamin Weaver is a former boxer in 18Th Century London trying to uncover family secrets and investigate a couple of murders. Can't wait.
No Graves As Yet The first in Anne Perry's World War I mystery series. I haven't read any Perry before, but have only read rave reviews.

Off the beaten path

2009-07-09T21:14:00.001-04:00

Last night I wanted to read something different. Our bed has a built in bookshelf and one of the books on the shelf was an ARC I received a couple of months ago...The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte. I hadn't read anything by Charlotte Bronte since high school and I had never read anything about her. So I picked up Syrie James's novel. 100 or so pages and I know it was a good decision. It's a very fast read and a lot of fun. I also checked some accuracy of the book and it's seems fairly historically accurate too. The book has a cute green cover with the title written in black script. I don't mind carrying it around with me. But it's so good, I don't think I'll be carrying it along too long.

Jack Reacher always gets his man

2009-07-08T20:55:00.001-04:00

Two Jack Reacher books in one week. I wish I could read two every week. For those who may not be infatuated with Jack Reacher, Reacher, as he's most commonly called, is the protagonist in Lee Child's numerous thrillers. Reacher is a former MP (Military Police) Captain and he was one of the best. Now that he's out of the service, he's a drifter that only carries his passport, a fold-up toothbrush, an ATM card and the clothes on his back. After a couple days he just buys more clothes and throws the others out. He's a man of few words and follows the old maxim..."if you're going to shoot, shoot." Basically, he's a comic book superhero for the (somewhat) grown-up reader. Did you see Liam Neeson in Taken? That's kind of like Jack Reacher.

In Persuader, Reacher is walking by Symphony Hall on Huntington Ave. in Boston, when he suddenly sees a man that he thought was long dead. "Truth is by that point I had been in for eleven whole days, since a damp shiny Saturday night in the city of Boston when I saw a dead man walk across a sidewalk and get into a car. It wasn't a delusion. It wasn't an uncanny resemblence. It wasn't a double or a twin or a brother or a cousin. It was a man who had died a decade ago. There was no doubt about it. No trick of light. He looked older by the appropriate number of years and was carrying the scars of the wounds that had killed him."

This starts Reacher on an intense undercover infiltration that will bring him face to face with his 'ghost' where he plans to finish him once and for all. And as all readers of the Reacher novels know, Jack Reacher always gets his man.

Just finished:
Persuader by Lee Child

Now reading:
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
I, Claudius by Robert Graves

"It's a major award"

2009-07-07T08:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Okbo Lover, I was given my first award, the Kreative Blogger Award. Now I have to list my seven favorite things and tag seven award worthy blogs. Here's the Meme and thanks again to Okbo Lover:

These are a few of my favorite things (not family related):

1. Reading (historical fiction, Beat literature, detective fiction, literary bio)
2. Book collecting (Bibliomysteries, Kerouac, Arturo Perez-Reverte, David McCullough)
3. Photography (I'm a total amateur, but love it)
4. The History Detectives on PBS
5. studying the American Revolution
6. traveling
7. Making lists

Here are my seven award worthy blogs:

1. Bookgirl's Nightstand
2. Historically Obsessed
3. Of Books and Bicycles
4. Box of Books
5. A Work in Progress
6. Nonsuch Book
7. Pages Turned

Weekend Reading

2009-07-06T08:19:00.000-04:00

Thursday during lunch I began Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble. Friday afternoon I finished. That's how it usually goes with Child's Jack Reacher novels. They're fast, furious and fun and Bad Luck was no exception. I'll hopefully have time to write post my review tonight.

Yesterday we spent a part of our morning reading at Starbucks. My wife was finishing up the last 100 pages of the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series, Among the Mad, and I was beginning Robert Graves', I, Claudius. It may be an ambitious book to begin considering that Baby Barresi is due in 16 days, but I figured that if I didn't begin it now I never would.

Side Projects: I'm still finishing up my re-read of A Study in Scarlet and I may begin another Jack Reacher novel to distract me from anxiously awaiting the little one.

Now reading:
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

On deck:
Persuader by Lee Child
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James

LibraryThing - Early Reviewer

2009-07-01T14:13:00.000-04:00

I finally snagged my first Early Review book via LibraryThing. I will be reviewing Linwood Barclay's Fear the Worst.

A Letter of Mary

2009-07-01T08:07:00.000-04:00

What would you do if you received a letter, written by Mary Magdalene. What if the woman that gave you the letter was a noted expert on Jerusalem and later was mysteriously killed? Those are only a couple of the questions Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes have to try and answer in Laurie R. King's A Letter of Mary. The third book in King's Russell series begins when Dorothy Ruskin, an archaeologist that Russell and Holmes had met in the Middle East a few years prior, visits them at their home and presents a letter supposedly written by Mary Magdalene. In the letter, Mary writes of being an apostle, news that would shock modern (1923) Anglican England and the world. Ruskin asks Russell and Holmes to investigate the letter and try to determine if it is authentic. Unfortunately, they do not even have time to begin their inquiry, when Ruskin is killed in an automobile accident. With her untimely death, Russell and Holmes set to uncover the truth about her death, enlisting the aid of Detective Lestrade and Sherlock's brother, Mycroft.

The investigation takes them to four different groups of potential murderers with four valid motives. Under disguise and careful observation, Russell and Holmes infiltrate and begin to build their case. And though Russell and Holmes are under no real threat of imminent danger, the mystery unravels at a great pace, never leaving the reader too relaxed. Russell as narrator is quick witted, self-depracating and funny. Her personality resonates throughout the book and her smarts are on par with Holmes's. Being married to Holmes, Russell allows the reader to see Holmes during his downtime and during those moments of self-doubt. All of King's novels are full of insight and maintain an authenticity to them that you don't get in a lot of pastiche.

Did the killers kill for money (greed) or were they out to stop the publication of the potentially shattering letter? This is a story about family, ambition and relationships. Especially relationships between between sisters and husband and wife.

What I'm looking forward to

2009-06-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

Another friend will be leaving me all to quickly. But as the cliche goes...every ending brings a new beginning. I'm nearing the end of another book. We've spent hours together on the couch or in my car; in my office and in waiting rooms. Though they may sleep in my bag or on table tops, they'll always be on my mind and we'll never be that far apart. And though I may not be spending time with Mary Russell or Sherlock Holmes over the next couple of weeks, I may begin a new relationship with Charlotte Bronte or continue an old one with Jack Reacher. What I'm looking forward to is my next book, my next literary trip.

On deck:
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

New template

2009-06-29T15:04:00.001-04:00

Please be honest and tell me what you think about the new template. I'm in the mood to change up the appearance, but I don't think I can trust my own judgement. Is the blog easy to read? Too busy? Just drop me a dime and let me know.

2009-06-29T08:34:00.000-04:00

Cool site, but even cooler books. I'm definitely going to have to get these as they come out.

Historical fiction

2009-06-23T09:16:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is with me, but nearly everything I read, buy or browse, is historical fiction. It may be a historical mystery, but, it is historical fiction nonetheless. My question is why do I enjoy reading historical fiction more than fiction that was written years ago. Case in point...I like reading Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. One of my favorite authors and certainly one of, if not my favorite, literary characters. However, I don't have a need to read all the stories. But then I read one of the books in Laurie King's Mary Russell series, or one of Nicholas Meyer's books and I can't wait to read the next. The styles are akin to Doyle's. The characters are either about Holmes or his fictitious wife Mary Russell or even Doyle himself. To my amateur understanding, there is no real discernible difference between the "real Holmes" and the historical fiction Holmes. Maybe it's best to read them at the same time.

With that being said, I'm reading Laurie King's A Letter of Mary and Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet. The King book is book 3 in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series and of course, A Study in Scarlet is the first Doyle story to feature Holmes.

You've been in Afghanistan I presume?

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2009-06-22T13:03:00.000-04:00

Carlos Ruiz Zafon is going to be discussing The Angel's Game tonight at Harvard Bookstore. I just bought the book last week, but I may have to get a second copy and have him sign it. If I'm not too lazy to go out in the rain.

Now reading:
A Letter of Maryy by Laurie King

On deck:
Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Book collecting

2009-06-19T09:56:00.000-04:00

Last week I went to a little used bookstore a couple miles from my house. I had been there years ago, but somehow forgot about it. I'm glad I remembered it because it's a great little store. Their stock of current/contemporary paperbacks is considerable. And though their hardcovers are few and far between, I did find two that I had been looking to add to my collection. I purchased Nicole Krauss's The History of Love, one of my favorite novels, and Geraldine Brooks's March. Both are first edition/first printings in Fine to Very Fine condition. The Brooks is a UK first edition though. I gauge that they are valued at $30-35 each and I paid $12 for the two. I'm proud to have added them to my library.

The other day I purchased a new hardcover book for the first time in a couple of years...and I'm not even going to read it. I bought Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game because I had to have it. I'm going to collect Ruiz Zafon and I recently purchased The Shadow of the Wind for a buck (worth about $65-70) and though The Angel's Game doesn't have much value as of yet, I'm hoping that it will appreciate while it sits peacefully on my library shelf.

Smoke Scree and The Night Calls

2009-06-16T08:51:00.001-04:00

I read every Marianne Macdonald book faster than the last. I don't do it on purpose. She just writes about a subject that I enjoy (bookselling/collecting,) has a great protagonist (Dido Hoare,) and writes well. It's the Trifecta. Smoke Screen was one of the more enjoyable Dido Hoare mysteries. Dido is asked to buy the book collection of an old and odd family. While making an inventory of the library, which is far better than she ever expected, Dido realizes that the woman was once married to a fairly famous, though now dead, poet. Mint copies of his books are in a special case in one of the rooms and she knows there must be manuscripts that go along with them. A valuable find. However, that's when all the trouble begins. She is accused of stealing a lost canto and she can't account for how she got possession of the poem. She happens to find the poem in her car on the same night the poet's ex-wife is murdered in the home that Dido spent the night. Though the mystery of who really committed the crime is fairly easy to uncover, Dido never makes anything easy for herself, her young son or her academic father, Barnabas. If you like mysteries or book collecting or amateur sleuths, this book may be just what you were looking for.

After finishing Smoke Screen, I had the choice of beginning one of two books, both mysteries. David Pirie's The Night Calls or Jacqueline Winspear's Among the Mad. I had every intention of moving onto the latest Maisie Dobbs, so I picked up The Night Calls for a page or two to see what I was eventually going to get myself into. Forty pages later, I couldn't put it down. I guess Maisie and Among the Mad will have to wait a few days as I make my way through The Night Calls. It's just too entertaining to put down.

David Pirie has written a series of books subtitled The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes: A Novel featuring Arthur Conan Doyle. These books take us back to Doyle's medical days and his apprenticeship under Dr. Joseph Bell, widely regarded as the archetype for Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, Bell is brilliant and erratic and posseses superior powers of deduction, which Doyle calls, his 'method.'

The series is akin to Mark Frost's in that they are adventures and mysteries about Arthur Conan Doyle and not Holmes. However, Pirie's takes us back further and we see the development of Doyle as med student and how he became part of the investigate and detective process.

"And I found that I missed my jousts with Bell even if, despite my painful lesson, I still had doubts about the man's 'method'. Perhaps he had won that particular contestt, but was there not, even here, some plain old-fashioned luck? After all, in his attempt to divine human character from an inanimate object, I had fed his ego by handing over a damaged artefact."

Now reading:
The Night Calls by David Pirie

On deck:
Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Bookish Wednesday

2009-06-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

I stopped by the library after work yesterday and picked up a few books. I was hoping to get Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens, but it was out on loan. Instead I picked up a few other highly anticipated reads. I got the new Maisie Dobbs, Among the Mad, Marianne Macdonald's Smokescreen and David Pirie's The Night Calls.

I've already started Smokescreen and I'll move on to Amond the Mad next. Macdonald has quickly become a favorite author of mine. Her Dido Hoare series is fantastic. I love reading about murder and intrigue anyway, but making the protagonist a rare bookseller makes this series a must.

I haven't read David Pirie before, but he's a must read for Sherlock Holmes pastiche. He writes a series subtitled: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, and chronicles Holmes's early career, beginning as a med student. I can't wait to get into this one sometime next week. I already collect Winspear and Macdonald and can envision beginning a Pirie collection before long.

Now reading:
Smokescreen by Marianne Macdonald

On deck:
Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear
The Night Calls by David Pirie

2009-06-09T14:30:00.000-04:00

The 6 Messiahs

2009-06-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

I started Mark Frost's The 6 Messiahs on Friday and I'm making my way through the book much too quickly to be honest with you. The 6 Messiahs is a sequel to Frost's The List of Seven and both follow Arthur Conan Doyle as he takes part in grand adventure mysteries with Jack Sparks, the archetype for Sherlock Holmes.

In The 6 Messiahs, Doyle is in America on a book tour, getting mobbed by the hungry American readers. Doyle has just killed off Holmes and the American reading public wants more Holmes stories. The reason Doyle killed off Holmes is because Sparks had supposedly met his fate the same way 10 years earlier. But in America, much to Doyle's astonishment, Sparks appears again. Sparks is searching for the sacred missing holy books that are being stolen from around the globe. And it's up to Sparks, Doyle and Doyle's brother, to save the texts before they are put to evil use.

Sparks is a great character, but Doyle is the real star in the Frost novels. In this book, Doyle is a more mature, stronger, self assured man than in the first book. And though he has developed a greater sense of deductive reasoning and a taste for adventure, his natural hesitations in tight situations play nicely against Sparks's absolute actions.

Frost does a nice job making this series (though he only wrote two books) a Sherlock Holmes story on crack, without going overboard. In fact, though I hate to make the correlations, Frosts books bare more of a resemblence to the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie, than to Doyle's stories. The books are grittier and more adventuresome, but Doyle (as Watson) keeps the reader interested and grounded, trying to reign in Sparks from time to time. Luckily for us, he's not always able to do so.

Now reading:
The 6 Messiahs by Mark Frost

On deck:
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

The Unburied

2009-06-04T07:20:00.000-04:00

If you are in the mood to take a little trip, I have a recommendation. How about Victorian England. Cobbled streets, kerosene lamps, churches, choirs, fog and murder set the mood for Charles Palliser's The Unburied. A middle aged historian, Dr. Courtine, visits his old friend Fickling, who is teaching at a shabby little school in the country. Courtine and Fickling had a falling out 20 years ago over an event involving Courtine's estranged wife. After all these years, Fickling has invited Courtine to visit and Courtine accepts...but why? Did Courtine accept so he could visit the famous old church in the town? To investigate a 200 year old murder? Or maybe to get some closure on the traumatic event in his own past?

Courtine's investigation into the murders and deaths of church officials 200 years in the past, is wrought with double crossing, murder and deceit. Is Fickling playing Courtine, setting him up? Is the librarian, Dr. Locard, misleading Courtine?

Palliser creates lots of questions for the reader to try and unravel, making the reader use their imagination as much as Courtine.

As Courtine sets out to find the Truth, we curl up and go along for the ride down the crooked cobbled streets, up the slanted, narrow stairs and right into the story.

"I was awakened by the Cathedral clock striking the hour, though I came to consciousness too slowly to count the chimes. The room was in darkness, the heavy curtains admitting no light that could give me a clue to the hour. I lit a candle and, with an effort of will, forced myself out of the bed and into the bonechilling cold of the unheated room. Once I was dressed I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock! Horrified at such self-indulgence, I pulled back the frayed curtains and found the fog still thick. Even in the muddy light, the time-blackened stonework of the Cathedral was startling close to the window."

This is a heavily saturated Victorian murder mystery, but it never feels overdone. Palliser touches on all the cliches, but doesn't fall victim to them. He enhances them and develops character.

If you're going to take a trip back in time, let Palliser be your guide.

Now reading:
The Unburied by Charles Palliser

On deck:
The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost

Back to what works

2009-05-29T09:29:00.000-04:00

A friend at work gave me variety of books to read. Some non-fiction, some fiction. I finally read The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale and it was well worth the wait. It was great being able to see the actual creation of the detective in the late 19th Century and the prototype for detective novels for years to come. Inspector Whicher was highly praised, much maligned and consistently right. If you are interested in detective mystery novels, this is book is a must.

After having such success with this book, I moved on to a novel, The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson. I haven't read much Scandanavian crime novels, but they seem to be crashing the mystery scene these past few years. I just couldn't get into this book. It was dark and gloomy and seemed to take a long time to build up momentum. I don't usually mind a prolonged build-up if it is well written and atmospheric. Eriksson's novel never really got me motivated. It's snowy and cold. I get it. The characters were never fully developed for me either. John used to get in trouble with the law, but now he's a family man who knows a lot about exotic fish. And? Maybe I'm not going to get into the Scandanavian crime scene, but I have loved the Wallander mini-series on PBS.

With that being said, I'm back to what works for me. I'm reading Charles Palliser's The Unburied. It's an atmospheric (yes, twice in one posting) Victorian mystery that involves ghosts stories, old churches, fog, and crooked cobblestone streets. Like a kid reading under the covers at night with a flashlight, I still get a kick out of getting spooked. And tonight, when my wife shuts off her bedside light, I'll stay up a little while longer with The Unburied, flashlight in hand.

On deck:
The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost

2009-03-12T21:09:00.000-04:00

I had every intention of reading more of the The List of Seven tonight, but after cooking dinner, washing dishes, and paying bills, I've put the book and picked up the computer (laptop.) After browsing the blogs and checking the usual sites, I made my way to Amazon and bought four books. I know that I'm playing a major role in the death of bookstores, but I can't ignore books for $.01 (not counting $3.99 shipping & handling.) I did pay $1.98 for a book, but four books for $19.92 makes for a successful night. Books purchased, To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas, Ghost Walk and Die Once by Marianne Macdonald and Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle. The Macdonald and Carlisle are bibliomysteries and the Thomas novel is part of the Barker and Llewelyn series. And though I know the books won't arrive for at least 5 business days, I'll be anxious until the package(s) arrive. I think everyone should have books delivered to them everyday. Preferably for free.

Alexander McCall Smith

2009-03-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

It was either earlier this year or late last year that I read my first Alexander McCall Smith book. It was The Sunday Philosopher's Club. I enjoyed McCall Smith's humor and wit, and his characters leaped off the page. Not only do I want to read all his novels now, I want to begin to collect his books as well. If I decide to collect his works, it will be quite the endeavor already, because he's published upwards of 14 novels already, along with a list of children's books. But the adventure and search for all his first editions would be a great challenge for me as an amateur collector.

I'm currently reading Espresso Tales, the second book in the 44 Scotland Street series. I usually try not to read books in a series out of order, but I needed something to read and Espresso Tales was on the bookshelf and 44 Scotland Street was not. Such are the necessities of a reader.

2009-02-26T20:47:00.000-05:00

Amid all the hoopla, yes, hoopla, surrounding the launch of Kindle 2, I've been able to keep my distance from the eReaders. I've found my solace in Will Thomas's Barker and Llewelyn series and Iain Pears's Jonathan Argyll series. Thomas's Llewelyn as narrator of Thomas's series is a highly likable character and guide through the streets of Victorian London. The Llewelyn novels are akin to Caleb Carr's 19th Century novels that take place in dark NYC,The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. Grisly murders, underground societies and shady cobblestone streets. But they differ in that Thomas's novel are a little lighter in tone, which makes for a much quicker read. Carr's novels are often time lengthy and tiresome...and dreary. Thomas brings humor and self deprecation into an already rich story. Thomas Llewelyn is a young man that has just lost his young wife to TB and had spent 8 months in prison. He finds work for one of London's leading Enquiry Agents, Cyrus Barker and begins his tutelage, investigating murders. Barker is one of London's first "Orientalists" and is well known for spending years in China, learning the culture, martial arts and fighting side by side with some of China's most infamous armies. All of this is incredibly new to Llewelyn and every few chapters he learns something new of his master. In a way, I'd say these novels are more entertaining than any Sherlock Holmes story. Though they may not be breaking any new ground, they are exactly what I want from mystery novels...excellent writing, good stories and unforgettable characters.

Pears's Argyll novels are part of the Art Mystery series set in Rome and involve art dealer Jonathan Argyll and his fiance, Flavia de Stefano, inspector in Rome's Art Squad. These books remind of a lot of different Italian mysteries and I don't know why. A mix of Andrea Camilleri, Michael Dibdin and Donna Leon. But the strange thing is, these are nothing like that. I don't have a good reason why I keep relating these series, I just do. The Argyll novels are written in third person, but I think they would have been better if told from either Argyll's perspective or better yet, from Flavia's. She seems to have the most internal turmoil and I'd like to see her cursing or speaking in Italian every now and then. Either way, anytime I get to visit old monasteries, read about religious icons or imagine looking at Baroque paintings, is worth my time. I'm only two books into each series, so I have quite a few more to get my hands on. Can't wait.

Currently reading:
Iain Pears Death and Restoration
G.K. Chesterton The Complete Father Brown Stories

On deck:
Marianne Macdonald Blood Lies

2009-02-19T08:36:00.000-05:00

I first read Wallace Stegner a few years ago. His novel Crossing to Safety was filled of gorgeous prose and heartfelt reality. Now it's the centennial of his birth and he's still fighting (or not fighting) for recognition.

2009-02-11T13:29:00.000-05:00

I'm in NYC for the Tools of Change Conference for Publishing and finally made my way down to the Strand Bookstore last night and made my way through the 18 miles of books. This may come off like blasphemy, but there was just too much. Too many books, too many shoppers, not enough space. I did buy three books and if I was shopping like I used (without care for condition of a book,) I'm sure there would have been many more books making it to the checkout line with me. Instead, I got three firsts in G (good) to VG (very good) condition. The third book in the Barker and Llewelyn series by Will Thomas, The Limehouse Text; Road Kill and Blood Lies in the Dido Hoare series by Marianne Macdonald.

None are the first books in the series and none are in F or VF condition, but I believe they were good buys for $6 each. I think my library will be happy to greet them tomorrow afternoon. Right now they are only worth what I paid, but these were bought for my personal collection, not for potential resale.

2009-01-26T13:56:00.000-05:00

My last few purchases have been for my personal collection. This past Saturday I picked up a copy of Louis Bayard's Mr. Timothy and Joan Hess's Out On a Limb for $1 each. Both are 1st/1st's and were well worth the two bucks, even if they don't have much actual value yet. I'm going to pick up Bayard's books because he's one of my favorite authors and writes pseudo-bibliomysteries. Mr. Timothy is a mystery that involves Dickens's Tiny Tim, all grown up and living in a whorehouse, tutoring the madam. I intend to get The Pale Blue Eye and The Black Tower as I go along. The Joan Hess book is a prime, albeit inexpensive, bibliomystery. It reads like a cozy murder mystery and involves Hess's protagonist, bookstore owner, Claire Malloy.

And after spending the day book hunting with my wife, we enjoyed a coffee and a couple magazines at the Barnes & Noble in Danvers. While going through pregnancy magazines, I showed her Oliver Jeffers's The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. Jeffers is my new favorite children's book illustrator and luckily, my wife enjoyed him too. First thing we did when we got home, was to buy four of his books on-line. We purchased The Incredible Book-Eating Boy, The Way Back Home, Lost and Found and How to Catch a Star. I'm not sure if any of them are firsts, but we got these to enjoy for years to come. I hope our baby will devour them. All four cost $32, counting shipping.

All in all, a pretty good book day.

2008-12-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past few months, I've been trying to learn the book collecting and bookselling business. It's been enlightening and overwhelming. Second state covers, remainder marks, boards, papers, F, VF, and countless other abbreviations. The list of new terminology has been truly impressive. I've been working in publishing for five years now and have been a bibliophile for about 18 years, but each day I find a new element of the book that I was unaware of.

When collecting and selling books, you have to become acquainted with some important factors before you begin. I never thought that determining if a book was a first edition, first printing would be so difficult. I always thought, if there was a full print line, then it was a first printing. Not so. There could be a full printing line, found on the Copyright page and usually read 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, but the book could be a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Then there would not be a price on the inside front flap. Or if it was a hyper-modern book and Oprah had selected it as one of her books, her sticker would be placed on the cover of a first printing book. Easy enough, right? Nope. This cover would more than likely be what is called a second state cover. What I understand this to mean is that the first, say, 3,000 books are printed and distributed before Oprah selects the book. Then the first printing is stopped and the sticker is affixed to the cover. At the same time, an extra sheet of paper will be added to the front matter or some other minor change. Once this is done, the printing continues with the full number line. This is a 1st edition, 1st printing, second state cover. It's less valuable than a 1st/1st/1st. This is the case with my copy of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

I'm continuing my research even though I know it will take a lifetime to get a true understanding of the book collecting world, but I'm enjoying it. I've changed the way in which I shop for books, the places I shop for books, the way I store my books and the way in which I look for books. But one thing that hasn't changed is the way in which I think of books. I've always revered them and continue to look at them and hold them with amazement and it's been peaceful going to bed dreaming of books.

2008-10-31T15:54:00.001-04:00

Now reading:
William J. Palmer The Dons and Mr. Dickens

2008-10-30T08:38:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday morning after a nice breakfast at our favorite cafe, my wife and I went to the Malden Public Library book sale. I've been to library book sales in the past, but usually just bought any book I wanted, hardcover or paperback, good condition or bad. Not Saturday. My wife got a number of books herself, but I filled up two good sized bags with all books that I thought were good conditioned modern first editions. The past five days I've been beginning my catalogue of the books and trying to determine their value, if there is any. I think I found a number of great books and investigating their print number and edition has been more fun than I would have imagined. I'm learning a lot about the book collecting and book selling trade. Maybe tonight I'll get some more work done.

These are not all Very Fine condition, but they are Good to Fine. And they may not all be First Printings either, but a number of them are. That is why I have to continue my research. The adrenaline was rushing as I picked up all these great finds. May not be worth a fortune, but it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Here's my list...

Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War, 1991 First US Edition
Robertson Davies, The Lyre of Orpheus, 1989 First US Edition
Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, 1988 First US Edition
Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, 1985 First US Edition
Gore Vidal, Empire, 1987 First US Edition
Steven King, Misery, 1987 First US Edition
Steven King, Cujo, 1981 First US Edition (possible Book-of-the-Month Club)
Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds, 1977 First US Edition (but later printing)
Elmore Leonard, Freaky Deaky, 1988 First US Edition
Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty, 1990 First US Edition
John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1969 First US Edition
Margaret Atwood, Bodily Harm, 1982 First US Edition
Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride, 1993 First Canadian Edition
Peter Ackroyd, Chatterton, 1988 First US Edition
James Carroll, Prince of Peace, 1984 First US Edition
Sebastian Faulks, Charlotte Gray, 1999 First US Edition
Alan Furst, Blood of Victory, 2002 First US Edition
Jeffrey Lent, In the Fall, 2000 First US Edition
John Le Carre, The Russia House, 1989 First US Edition
Don Delillo, Libra, 1988 First US Edition
Don Delillo, Underworld, 1997 First US Edition
Pat Barker, The Ghost Road, 1996 First US Edition
E.L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate, 1989 First US Edition
E.L. Doctorow, The Waterworks, 1994 First US Edition
T. Coraghessan Boyle, World's End, 1987 First US Edition
Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987 First US Edition (possible BOTM Club)
John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire, 1981 First US Edition
Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans, 2000 First US Edition
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled, 1995 First US Edition
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, 2005 First US Edition
Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale, 2006 First US Edition
Philip Roth, Sabbath's Theater, 1995 First US Edition
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Queen of the South, 2004 First US Edition
Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Nautical Chart, 2001 First US Edition
Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984 First US Edition (undetermined printing)

2008-10-22T08:45:00.001-04:00

I started Birds of a Feather and I'm ready for another adventure with the ever ready Maisie Dobbs. There's one problem. A strange one, but not an important one. I don't know if I've read this book yet. The first few pages sound familiar, but the story is unfamiliar. I guess the truth will come out in a little while, probably during lunch or as I call it, my reading hour.

Last night, before House started and after we made an apple crisp, I finished Lawrence Block's Burglars Can't Be Choosers. It was my first Bernie Rhodenbarr book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was much more fun than I thought it would be. I read it in about 2 1/2 hours and finished wanting more. This was the first in the series and I look forward to the development of the bookish burglar over the next 9 books in the series. Bernie is one of the more likable "criminal" protagonists I've ever read. He makes no excuses for his criminal activity and he puts up with the punishments that follow his burglaries when he is caught. A fatalistic bookish burglar. I hope my library is well stocked with Block's novels because these are going to be fast and fun. The Burglar in the Closet is up next.

2008-10-21T08:28:00.000-04:00

I just saw this on Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Castle Rock has picked up "Book of Shadows," an action-adventure pitch from Zoe Green.

The story follows a young man who must embark on the perilous journey of first love and face many trials of maturity while on the dangerous quest to close a mythical tome called "Book of Shadows" in order to restore balance to the world.

Castle Rock principal Rob Reiner will direct for the Warner Bros.-based studio. Reiner was in a general meeting with Green and told her of an idea on which he had been working. Green picked up on that and ran with it, fleshing it out.

2008-10-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

I answered a meme the other day and one of the questions asked if I had ever "give up a book halfway in." How prescient. When I answered the question last week, I couldn't remember the last book I stopped reading. I do now. The Poe Shadow became tedious and boring. Two death blows to reading. I became uninterested in the search for the truth of Poe's death. And Quentin Clark, the protagonist was a weak character. He seemed to be misplacing his anger over his parents' death into finding out what really happened to Edgar Poe in the days leading up to his untimely death. Clark is searching for answers to death and since he couldn't find out what happened to his parents or why they had died, perhaps he could determine what happened to Poe. But 200 pages in and I'm giving up on his quest. I haven't picked up the book in a about four days and that tells me something.

At least it had this bookish passage. "It seemed as I read that God was dead to me, Quentin. Yes, it's that other world that I worry about for you-that world of books and bookmen who invade the minds that read them. That imaginary world. No, this is where you belong. These are your class, serious and sober people. Your society. Your father said that the idler and the melancholy man shall ever wander together in a moral desert."

If that is true that let us wander.

Now reading:
Lawrence Block Burglars Can't be Choosers

2008-10-17T08:02:00.000-04:00

I read an article yesterday in the TLS about a new book about the role of religion in Dostoevsky's work titled Dostoevsky: Language, faith and fiction. Author and biogragpher, Rowan Williams, wrote that Prince Myshkin, from the Idiot, was a "‘good’ person who cannot avoid doing harm”. I had always read Myshkin as an innocent figure, Christ-like in his forgiving nature, that remains too good to be true. I had never thought of him as simply a 'good man who cannot avoid doing harm.' I wonder if I had read Myshkin as innocent and near perfect because I thought I was supposed to. Reading Williams quote makes me rethink my perception of one of my favorite literary characters. If I'm willing to rethink my strong opinion based on a single quote, I can only imagine what would happen if I read Williams's book on Dosty. It may be time to read my first critical work on Dostoevsky.

2008-10-16T22:17:00.000-04:00

What was the last book you bought? Two Kerouac books from eBay. A 1976 First Edition Paperback VISIONS OF GERARD and a 1966 First Edition Paperback SATORI IN PARIS.

Name a book you have read MORE than once. On the Road, Moby Dick and Gilead. Three of my favorite novels. I hope I keep having the motivation to reread them year after year. They're my bibles.

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it? On the Road changed my life. Kerouac was from Lowell, MA, only a half hour from where I grew up and to read a novel like that and know that someone that I could have grown up with (or my grandparents could have) could write the way he did, made me look at literature differently. Literature wasn't only for 19th Century Russians anymore.

How do you choose a book? e.g. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews?I used to read Beat Generation writers. Then I found out who influenced them and I began reading Thomas Wolfe, Dostoevsky and Spengler. Now I search the blogs and take recommendations from bloggers and writers whose opinions I respect. But a good cover design always makes me pick up the book and at least consider it.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction? Fiction, but non-fiction has always had an important place for me. I find the stories of non-fiction more fascinating than anything someone could create. But it's in fiction where language shines and the truths not told in history emerge. Shelby Foote, David McCullough and Bruce Catton make history come alive and read like brilliant novels. They have the gift of genius.

What's more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot? No matter what I'm reading, the writing is most important. The writing keeps me reading, a good plot only makes it better.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book). Most lovable character? John Ames from Gilead. And then I'd say Myshkin from The Idiot.And actually, anything with E.B. White in his own essays.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment? A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes, Raymond Chandler's letters and non-fiction and One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.

What was the last book you read, and when was it? Just finished People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks 5 days ago. Almost finished with Ross MacDonald's The Name is Archer.

Have you ever given up on a book halfway in? Of course. I can't remember the last one I stopped reading, but the day I realized that no one was grading my reading habits, I began to enjoy reading even more than I had before. If I don't like a book, I quit. No questions asked.

2008-10-15T08:17:00.001-04:00

BookMooch is taking over my life. But since I've been using brown paper bags to wrap the books, at least it's not killing me financially. I sent out 9 books last week and 6 yesterday. I still have 17 books to send out this week and next. I started with 58 books in my inventory and once these 17 books are out the door, I'll only have 23 remaining. In three short weeks I'll have said good-bye to a number of my close and personal friends (and a few of my wife's.) I rearranged our bookshelves so BookMooch books would be housed on the bottom shelves and removed accorrdingly and the shelves are looking bare. We have a few books coming in this week, The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud, The Angel of Darkness, The Passion of Artemisia, and The Kalahari Typing School for Men.

I also have two Kerouac novels coming in from eBay. A 1966 first edition paperback of Satori in Paris and a 1976 edition of Visions of Gerard. So the bottom shelves won't be bare too long as we'll be introducing some more friends to the family in the next few days.

I deleted yesterday's post, by accident, on my quick review of People of the Book. I'll try and get another one up tonight. I didn't like that post anyway. I shall do better.

Now reading:
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes

On deck:
I'll have to go to the TBR pile

Listening to:
Weei Sports Radio

2008-10-09T16:01:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about getting an eBook reader. My investigation into the Kindle and Sony's reader (there's a new version that just rolled out for $399) seems to lead more toward the Kindle than the Sony, but even at $359, it's a little expensive. Does anyone have one? I'd take any advice my fellow bloggers and readers can give.

2008-10-09T07:42:00.000-04:00

"Never once did her father open the door for Reuben to the glory that swirled in the dark ink. Her own mind was incandescent with it. Any tiny letter was a poem, a prayer, a gateway to the splendor of God. And every letter its own road, its own special mystery." (Ruti from People of the Book)

When I wanted to go to graduate school for journalism, an undergrad professor of mine said that he didn't know if I was cut out for journalism because I didn't bleed ink. He said that most reporters bleed newspaper ink. They write for the high school paper (I did not,) they write for the college paper (I did not,) they intern at a newspaper (I did not,) and they're always interested in the news (I was not.) It didn't stop me from going to graduate school for journalism and my life would not have been the same if I didn't go to Emerson College and roam bars and bookstores of Tremont and Boylston streets. Maybe my professor was right. After I graduated, I only lasted one year as a journalist. But he was wrong in one significant way. I do bleed ink. Just not newspaper ink. Like Ruti in People of the Book, I'm mesmerized by the ink of a book. Each word, the skill and craft that goes into the setting of the type; the depth of meaning each letter and word carry. Since I was a kid, I was spellbound by the art and mystery of the written word. And yes, I could have figured all this out without spending $45,000 on a graduate degree I don't use, but I never would have met my wife.

2008-10-07T08:08:00.000-04:00

I'm reading Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book. I had read so many rave reviews this past year, that I knew I had to finally read it. Though the story is interesting and it's written well, through the first 150 pages, I can't determine what sets it apart from similar books. Maybe I 'misremember' the reviews, but I thought they said this book belonged in the top of the class. I don't see it yet. Michael Gruber sits atop this sub-genre (literature/art based mysteries) in my estimation. Gruber's The Forgery of Venus and Book of Air and Shadows are two of the best written and entertaining along with Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. I'm going to finish People of the Book over the next couple of days and I hope I'm surprised along the way. Maybe the novel is like a train and it's finally getting up to full steam. In that case, I'll make sure I enjoy the ride.

Now reading:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Name is Archer by Ross MacDonald

On deck:
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt

Listening to:
Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio

2008-10-03T07:48:00.000-04:00

I've been having a reoccurring dream recently. Nothing scary, just odd. Due to my compulsive mystery reading, I've been having dreams of a book I would like to write or see written. The premise is old, but the characters could be interesting. There are a lot of characters and series based on the Holmes and Watson sleuthing team. Mine involves Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg with Ginsberg in the Watson role. It would be Ginsberg's role to keep Kerouac on the straight and narrow as they search the side streets, alleyways and bars of Greenwich Village in the 1950s. Kerouac would keep on getting distracted, speaking in French, getting pulled into parties and staying out all night with women. And instead of cocaine being his drug of choice, Benzedrine keeps him going as the he slides in and out of bars and consciousness. Ginsberg's neurosis would make him an expert at picking up small clues and understanding all the minutiae of an investigation.

Herbert Huncke could be their "go to" informant on the streets, Burroughs the elder investigator/writer/historian who they visit in his old, comfortable parlor with the fireplace burning a small piece of wood and Lucien Carr would be the journalist that pounds the pavement and always has the scoop. The burgeoning grime and noveau art of The Village would be the quintessential backdrop for a modern take on the Victorian crime novel.

I don't know if it would be a comedy or be more serious, but I'm interested in the premise. I'm sure it will make for some interesting sleeping this weekend.

Reading now:
People of the Bookby Geraldine Brooks

2008-10-02T19:59:00.000-04:00

I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm coming back to the blogging world. I've been slowly reading the usual suspects again and now I've gotten the itch.

I joined BookMooch today. I posted about 40 books and already I've had 14 mooch requests. I'll send out 9 tomorrow, but I have to put off the other 5 until next week.

Books going out: Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer, The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, Maynard & Jennica by Rudolph Delson, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago, The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux, Huge Dreams by Michael McClure, The Joy of Coffee by Corby Kummer, Paul Revere's Ride by David Hacket Fischer and Henry Adams and the Making of America by Garry Wills.

Books coming in: The Raymond Chandler Papers

I already know that BookMooch is going to be addictive. Damn you internet and intelligent people!@#$% Stop coming up with new ideas that keep me away from reading and doing constructive things with my life.

2008-02-12T19:32:00.000-05:00

Oh, for the love of weekends and bookstores. I sometimes feel like a lil old school marm when I think and write about my Saturdays (at least Saturday mornings) at bookstores. I've been good lately. I've been trading in books as much as I've been buying them. This past Saturday I traded in about six or seven books, Michael Cox'sThe Meaning of Night, was one of them, but I came out of Hand-It-Back Bookstore, I had some great buys. Jacqueline Winspear's Pardonable Lies, Michael Dibdin'sBlood Rain, Robert Wilson's Blind Man of Seville, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and a great Modern Library paperback of Vanity Fair and an older, but perfect Penguin paperback of Middlemarch.

I've been on a mystery kick these past 12 months that started with Andrea Camilieri's Inspector Montalbano series. Now all I want to buy, touch, look at, think about are mysteries. Historical mysteries especially, but really anything will quench my thirst. In less than 24 hours I finished Dibdin's Blood Rain. It was my first Aurielo Zen mystery and I loved it. The ending blew me away and I had never read anything of his before. And though it's a series, I've never been one that cared enough, or felt the need to, begin a series with the first installment. Now I'm going to read all of Dibdin's Zen novels. They're quite similar to Camilieri's Montalbano series, but without the sense of humor, but that's not a bad thing. Dibdin was able to articulate the intricate workings and mechanisms of the Sicilian mafias. Crime families paying each other back with atrocious murders, cops getting killed by explosives and detectives risking their lives to get at the truth...whatever that is. And, the language is brisk, brusk and perfectly noir.

"Outside, the sky was falling. As yet it was just a light dust which appeared on Zen's coat like mist. It seemed to be pink. He walked back along the bridge, pausing at the same spot as before to light a cigarette. A gentle aerosol, soft yet solid, had soaked the night, thickening it and covering every surface with a patina of reddish dust."

Now reading:
Jacqueline Winspear Pardonable Lies
William Makepeace Thackery Vanity Fair

On deck:
Robert Wilson The Blind Man of Seville

2008-02-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

I enjoy writing late at night. Well, not late, but after 10 p.m. or so. I actually turn down most, if not all, the lights, flip open my well worn, well used iBook and begin writing, my hands illuminated by the glow of the ever bright screen. No books open, television on as background noise for comfort and countless words coming to mind. None of the words are original. They're normally words, sentences or plots that I had read earlier in the day. I don't worry about this. I find solace in this. At times. At other times I fear for my loss of creativity, if I had ever had any to begin with. But it's the words in my books that spark my imagination and excite me every time I crack open a new book and fold over a new cover, flip through the yellowing pages and begin my newest challenge. It's dark and quiet in my apartment. The light from the t.v. acts as my lamp, but my books light my way.

Now reading:
Jon Fasman The Geographer's Library

Now watching:
Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s African-American Lives 2

2008-02-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

What's going on? I'm half way through Perez-Reverte's The Painter of Battles and I can barely get through it. Maybe I'm being finicky, but it's just not working for me. I get the idea of it. The premise is a war photographer, Andres Faulques, retires to a drab castle-like house on the coast of Spain. Instead of taking photographs, he begins to paint a mural of the history of war on his outside wall. With the sound of water crashing against the castle wall, the painter of battles (Perez-Reverte uses Faulques's name, but I enjoy writing and hearing 'the painter of battles') contemplates his color options, like using siena and blue to make black instead of using black itself. Then one day, a stranger appears. The painter of battles doesn't recognize this stranger, yet it is a man he photographed years ago. The photograph won a prestigious award and garnered the painter of battles fame and recognition. However, the photo sent the other man's life in a downward spiral. He appears and confronts the painter of battles and tells him he is going to kill him. They then spend evenings talking about life, death and the power of art. All the while, the painter of battles knows this man wants to kill him, but still he does not react to this. Is he withdrawn, resigned to his fate? It's like a Jim Jarmusch film. Two people in a cafe smoking cigarettes and speaking about their philosophy of life. It's just not enough to excite me. Blasphemy, I know. I'm not looking forward to my train ride tomorrow morning. Lunch is suddenly not looking too appetizing.

2008-02-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

Friday night we went to Barnes and Noble for a coffee and to browse some books. Families, couples and friends, ran among the aisles, blocked magazines and waited impatiently in the cafe line...and I loved it all. We've begun to visit Barnes and Nobles when we have downtime on the weekends. It's how we both relax and make our next plan of attack. Friday night my fiance bought two books and though I left empty handed, I had countless ideas for my next purchase.

So when we were out Saturday I made sure I made our parade of errands took us to Cambridge so I could go to one of my favorite bookstores, Lorem Ipsum. Ok, it may not be my favorite bookstore, but I do have over $150 in store credit there. How did this happen? When I moved in with my fiance, we rented a beautiful, but small apartment. New stove, new refrigerator, new chandelier, no space...for my books. Of my 400 or so books, at least 225 were sold to Lorem Ipsum for well below what was paid for them in the first place. Its sort of like the college bookstore market of $.25 on the dollar. I don't want to cry again right now, so I'll move up to the present. At Lorem Ipsum, I was able to walk out with three books (and my fiance got another) and only $25 against our credit. I wasn't thrilled with the selection yesterday, but of course I was able to find a few stragglers. A mass market copy of James Ellroy's White Jazz, Kevin Baker's Paradise Alley and Jon Fasman's The Geographer's Library. But they'll have to wait a few days so I can spend some time with Arturo Perez-Reverte and The Painter of Battles.

Now reading:
Arturo Perez-Reverte The Painter of Battles

Just read:
Michael Gruber The Book of Air and Shadows

Now watching:
Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood

2008-02-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile and I've been out of touch the past year, but I haven't stopped reading. Far from it. I've found some new friends...John Dunning, Anthony Burgess, Andrea Camillieri, Ross King and Michael Gruber to name a few. Yes, I know they have all been writing for years, but that's one of the joys of literature, right, finding a writer for the first time. "Ocian in view! O! The Joy!" Each reader has the opportunity to discover what others know, but had previously been unknown to them...like the Pacific to William Clark and Merriweather Lewis.

It's going to take awhile for me to get this blog up and running at full steam, but I'm prepared to begin. Since I last wrote, I've gotten engaged, set a wedding date, moved in with my fiance and booked a honeymoon. And with that, I will get my thoughts together as much as possible and try to post again this evening.

Currently reading:

John Dunning The Bookman's Promise

On deck:

Arturo Perez-Reverte The Painter of Battles

2007-03-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

I didn't mean to lie, it just sort of happened. I have every intention of blogging, but I never seem to get around to it like I want. I have a list of excuses: I'm in the process of moving, work is getting busy, I was in between books, I'm lazy. All true, but not very good excuses. I'm moving this weekend and probably won't be able to read and or write, but I will once again take fingers to keys and post next week about the few books I've read recently.

I'm now on to Isabelle Allende's Zorro and Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas. The Perez-Reverte novel is reminiscent of Shadow of the Wind but it's still an entertaining read. And am I the only person who didn't know the movie The Ninth Gate was based on this novel?

2007-03-23T16:41:00.000-04:00

Stealing from Bookgirl, here's my 10 Books You (I) Can't Live Without:

Moby Dick Herman Meliville I think it's the greatest American novel.

On the Road Jack Kerouac The most influential book and author of my life.

The Idiot Dostoevsky Prince Myshkin is one of my favorite literary characters.

Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe It was difficult to choose between Look Homeward and You Can't Go Home Again, so I chose the one I read first.

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald It seems cliche or passe, but it's still one of the most complex novels I've read.

A Death in the Family James Agee Simply one of the most starkly lyrical novels. Masterpiece.

Swann's Way Marcel Proust Grand.

As I Lay Dying William Faulkner My Faulkner list alone, could have gone on for ever. This is my favorite Faulkner, probably because it still haunts me.

The Long-Winded Lady: Notes from The New Yorker Maeve Brennan From one of the 20th Century's most neglected writers. At least in my opinion.

Good Morning, Midnight Jean Rhys This book opened my eyes to the wide world of literature (outside the Beat writers.)

2007-03-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

No, I haven't been off losing myself in March Madness like in years past, I've been reading. Luckily I came across a few great books in a row.

During the past week or so, I read The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, The Haunted Bookshop (albeit a better copy than the one pictured on Powell's. Mine is a little hardcover with dust jacket from the 1950s.) and in less than 24 hours, I finished Written on the Body.

I'm going for a few drinks afterwork, but I'm looking forward to writing up some thoughts on these books. All perfect in their own way. I know I've written it before, but I'll write it and say it again, go out today and pick up a Jeanette Winterson book. You won't be disappointed.

Hopefully waiting for me when I get home tonight:
Club Dumas, Angle of Repose and The Way of all Flesh.

I never thought I'd say such a thing, but Thank You Amazon.com. It sounds like such blasphemy even as I write it.

2007-03-16T10:23:00.000-04:00

It only took a couple days to finish Dope. Amid the multifarious weather of New England's final days of winter, Dope was with me for a little while and I probably won't remember much of it a couple weeks from now. Nothing impressive. I kept waiting...for something...but it never came. It's short. At least it has that going for it.

Now reading:

Dominic Smith The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
Sheila Heti Ticknor

On deck:
Arturo Perez-Reverte Club Dumas
Wallace Stegner Angel of Repose

2007-03-12T11:03:00.000-04:00

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac (aka Jack Kerouac) would have been 85 today.

2007-03-12T10:05:00.000-04:00

Whenever I read Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, I tend to feel that I could write like them. I just began Sara Gran's Dope and her writing is so sparse and simple, that it seems like anyone could write like her. Not the case. It's a perfectly rendered noir novel. 19 pages in, 224 pages left. I'm ready to go.

The bright sun outside was a shock after Maude's. It was one o'clock in the afternoon on May 14, 1950, in New York City. On Broadway I hailed a taxi to take me down to Fulton Street, and then I walked a few blocks until I found number 28. It was a quiet place, a tall narrow building that looked like someone had poured it in between two buildings on either side. The whole front of it was white stone carved up with clouds and faces and stars, and it came to a point at the top like a church. A doorman in a sharp blue uniform with gold braid opened the door for me with a big smile. Inside there were marble floors with clean red rugs and streams of people coming in and out, busy people in suits with briefcases and very important places to go. In the middle of the lobby was a big marble counter where a good-looking fellow in the same uniform sat guiding everyone on their busy way. But I already knew where I was going.

2007-03-07T11:21:00.000-05:00

Since September of last year, I've been lazy. A lazy reader that is. I haven't read too many books over the six months. Maybe 12 or so. I finished 2006 having finished close to 65 or 70 books. The most I had read in one calendar year. This year I don't envision reading 70, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace and get back into the swing of things.

Since January, I've read only about six so far, mostly hitorical non-fiction. I've been able to get my non-fiction fix early and out of the way. I've also finished my first Louis Auchincloss, The Rector of Justin and my first Allegra Goodman, Intuition. Auchincloss was a pleasent surprise, but Goodman didn't live up to the hype. However, I think that my disinterest in science labratories could have played part in my reading.

Though there was nothing novel in Auchincloss's book about an all boy's school in New England, it was a good read. Quick. It hasn't made me want to read any more of his work, but I'm glad I spent a few days with his old school novel.

With Goodman, I had been waiting to read Intuition for awhile. It's set in my backyard of Cambridge and Boston and I'm always interested in books that take place around here. This book simply didn't live up to my expectations. A story about moral ambiguity and ethical methidcal practices, Intuition was flat. I was waiting for the language to take me into the story, but it wasn't there. I have Katerskill Falls on my shelf at work, but I think it'll have to sit there for a little while longer.

2007-03-06T15:11:00.000-05:00

This is my first post in nearly six months. I feel that I'm being pulled back into the Blog world. I tried staying away for long enough. "Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in."

I shall try and get back to write a little more later tonight and provide a quick catch up on what's been going on with my reading habits (which I fear have slackend since last post.)

Currently reading:
Cynthia Ozick The Puttermesser Papers

Just finished:
Allegra Goodman Intuition

On deck:
Sara Gran Dope
Dominic Smith The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
Sheila Heti Ticknor

2006-09-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

This is my last post here at Liquid Thoughts. I started blogging because I thought it would be a fun way to connect with like minded people, or even better, connect with a diverse group of bloggers and readers. However, it's becoming a chore to blog and I'm going to go back to my journaling ways and leave the blogworld.

I'll still be reading blogs and hope you all continue to publish such great essays.

Cheers

Mike

2006-09-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

I just found this site at LitKicks. It would be cooler if the shirts didn't have the names on them, but I may have to get a couple.

2006-09-13T08:49:00.000-04:00

In college, we knew all the cliques. Cliques seem to be stereotypes that transcend time and location. In Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a group of gifted and privileged students studying Greek and the classics commit murder. The novel challenges the reader to watch these students, Henry, Francis, Richard, Bunny, Camilla and Charles deal with the emotional turmoil that comes with covering up a murder. It never goes smoothly, does it? The students think they're smarter than everybody else, tricking cops, the FBI, classmates, parents, teachers and the Vermont community. Unfortunately, Tartt actually does make them smarter than everybody and that is one of the downsides of the novel because Spoiler Alert they get away with, not one, but two murders. I don't know what Tartt's trying to say with this. Later in the book, we learn that a few of the kids crack and never really get their lives in order, but I wanted more trouble for the murderers. I wanted them to pay for their crimes, not just emotionally. I'm a square through and through, but I understand that life is not always black or white. I watch film noir and read Raymond Chandler. I know that people do some awful things because they feel there's no alternative. But Tartt doesn't want us to sympathize with these characters. And that's good because I didn't want to. These were cold blooded killers that were supposedly above reproach. The protagonist/narrator Richard, actually ends up going for his Ph.D in literature and is the least scarred of all the killers. I like shady protagonists...people on the skirts of society, living in the shadows of right and wrong. Richard isn't that guy. He's more of guiltless Ripley-esque character, without Ripley's charm.

It may not seem it, but I enjoyed the novel. It was an easy and entertaining read. I just never got what Tartt was trying to say, if anything. I didn't underline or mark any passages (and that's sad,) I simply read it and was done with it. I think Tartt's friend and former classmate, Brett Easton Ellis can still claim to rule the world of collegiate narcissism and moral corruption.

2006-09-12T16:44:00.000-04:00

2006-09-12T08:51:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed The Secret History and hopefully I'll post about it today or tonight. Eventhough it was about 650 pages, I read it in about four days. Now I'm breezing through Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies. I started it last night, but I should finish it during lunch today. It's great!

And maybe I'll get up here this fall and walk in Edna St. Vincent Millay's footsteps.

Now reading:
Paul Auster The Brooklyn Follies

Up next:
Marcel Proust Sodom and Gomorrah

Just finished:
Donna Tartt The Secret History

2006-09-06T14:33:00.000-04:00

Enough! So long Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. We hardly knew ye. Three hundred pages and another wasted lunch hour were about all I could take of Jonathan Strange.

I never got into Harry Potter and I can't deal with the adult version either. I enjoy a magic show, but I appreciate it for what it is. Magic, illusion, slight of hand, mind games. In Jonathan Strange, the people believe in magic for real and want to use it for practical purposes...war! I couldn't grasp it. I've already given it to a co-worker and have decided to read Donna Tart's The Secret History. A friend has recommended it and let me borrow it and so...I begin.

2006-09-06T08:30:00.000-04:00

125 pages Monday. 110 page Tuesday. And it's 8:17 a.m. and I've already read another 20 pages of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. In most cases, reading this many pages so quickly would be a good sign. It would seem to mean that I was enjoying the book and that I was nearing some sort of end. However, it's neither. The book is such an easy read, that you just sort of flow along, not really becoming entranced by the magic, magicians or anything much for that matter. I've been reading it with a certain nonchalance that I'm not accustomed to. But it's the book that demands this. How else are we to make it through 1,006 pages? This book is a behemoth. I'm 255 pages in and I'm not even out of the first section. The second main character, Jonathan Strange, has just been introduced into the fold.

This book has received nothing but rave reviews, winning countless book of the year awards. Now, I really don't care about awards or reviews for that matter, but I do pay attention to them. Hopefully, I'll be able to make my own judgment. I'm not saying Clarke's book is bad or poorly written. I was just hoping to be sucked into the world of mystery and magic, with mist and eerie British settings, conducive to prolonged periods of reading as rain falls, quieting the world around me. Instead, I've been lulled into a world of practical magic, where Mr. Norrell wants to use his powers to aid in the war against Napoleon and the French. I don't want people being turned into pumpkins, but magicians fighting wars? I get it. I take it as a modern version of Merlin. Or something like that.

Maybe the next 250 pages will be the catalyst to invigorate me, to invigorate the book. I would think that after 500 pages a book would speak to me. May Jonathan Strange whisper for me to put him down? We shall see...

p.s. I am not reading this book as part of Carl V.'s Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.)Autumn Challenge, but I may take up this challenge if I can get through Jonathan Strange.

2006-09-05T09:08:00.000-04:00

I admit that I had never heard of Rebecca West until sfp at Pages Turned wrote about her. What many already know is that West was a brilliant writer. I quickly realized this after reading only a few pages of her books. Then I read that she had an affair with H.G. Wells at the age of 19 and they had a son together. However, Wells was still married. His wife reportedly knew of the affair, but chose to ignore it. At this time, I was reading Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau and by coincidence, A.S. Byatt's Possession. The turning point came when I began to see similarities between Byatt's Victorian romance and the real life Wells-West relationship.

In Possession, Randolph Henry Ash, a famous poet and writer in Victorian England begins a secret affair with Cristobel LaMotte, also a gifted writer, but supposed lesbian. At the time, Ash and LaMotte were writing epic poems and stories based on old British and Breton myths. It was a world of fantasy, shadows and metaphors, similar to modern science fiction that Wells was writing of. Now, I have no idea if any of this makes sense, but I enjoy finding these little nuances in novels and trying to discover if they have any relation to anything real.

Ash and LaMotte have this affair which produces a child, just as Wells's and West's did. Though LaMotte has the child in secret and gives it up for her sister to raise, there was a child. Also, LaMotte's lover Blanche tells Ash's wife that Cristobel and her husband are having an affair. Ash's wife chooses to ignore this news and continues to live her life with Ash as if nothing happened. This was similar to Wells's wife's knowledge of his fairly public affair with West and her choosing to remain with him.

And the last thing that struck me as interesting is that though West was well known and respected in her time, Wells is certainly the more famous writer of the duo. West is still read and studied, but nowhere near on par with Wells. In Possession, it is Ash that retains the fame and notoriety, while LaMotte becomes a subject for select scholars. Byatt may have simply been following the all too familiar path of women writers through history...neglect.

These are possibly only mere fancies I've created. Mere coincidences, not probabilities. But Byatt is a scholar of the Victorian and she would certainly have known about Wells and West, as many already do. Wouldn't it then be possible that she had this love affair in the back of her mind as she began writing Possession? I don't know and it probably doesn't matter in the end, but it added layers to the novel that I would have glanced over, were it not for the real life similarities.

2006-09-01T21:22:00.000-04:00

I just finished A.S. Byatt's Possession and I'm going to write about it. But, I want to do a little research and find out more about the relationship between H.G. Wells and Rebecca West. The Victorian love story between Randolph Henry Ash and Cristobel LaMotte, in Possession seems to have far too many similarities to the Wells - West relationship than simple coincidence. I'm not taking notes or anything, just reading more about it all. It's actually more interesting than the novel itself.

2006-08-31T09:35:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted at Slaves of Golconda

I was talking to my father the other day about invention. From the beginning of history, people conducted their lives in similar ways. For thousands of years, news traveled the same way, wars were fought the same way, food was cooked the same way. Then in the mid-1800s, the world changed. People went to sleep one dreamfilled night in what could have been 1625 and awoke to a world that they didn't recognize. Trains, the telegraph and later indoor electricity. The Victorians were on the doorstep of the modern world. They were the first through the door. And the advent of modern science was the umbrella that covered their contemporary lives.

Yes, Darwin changed the way people thought of humans and therefore thought of themselves. His studies allowed for people to begin experiencing life like never before. Dimensions to worlds unknown opened up. Seances and spiritualism became common. Victorians were expanding their spiritual and religious realm. If what they thought about themselves had been altered by science, then maybe what they thought or knew of the dead and the soul, was different as well.

But it was writers like H.G. Wells, that uncovered hidden truths in them all. Writers like Wells made readers and the public rethink what it was to be human. Not just how they thought, but how the felt. The emotional turmoil pervading society had to be a sort of shell shock. If humans came from apes, then what does that do to our sense of who we think we are? Do we feel like humans? What does that even mean? Or could we be nothing more than wild creatures that wear clothing? What truly distinguishes us from 'them.'

Reading The Island of Dr. Moreau, these were the questions I was dealing with, repeatedly returning to. Rationalization is not the only thing that seperates us. Neither is knowledge or conscience. It must be all.

The narrator of Moreau, Prendick writes, Yet I felt an absolute assurance in my own mind that the Hyena-Swine was implicated in the rabbit-killing. A strange persuasion came upon me that, save for the grossness of the line, the grotesqueness of the forms, I had there before me the whole balance of human life in miniature, the whole interplay of instinct, reason, and fate in its simplest form.

These animal-human hybrids are humans in Prendick's estimation. Their ability to reason has changed them and has made them all too human like. However, I wonder if it was their strange mutation into human like beings that gave them reason or if they had always had reason and were now only able to communicate it. I fall into believing the latter in this case. Moreau had partly succeeded in his dungeon of science.

Prendick's experience on the lost island of mutation and vivisection, changed his way of feeling. It certainly changed the way he thought and what he thought about. Everything he thought he knew before, was turned upside down. He was left grasping.

I fell indeed into a morbid state, deep and enduring, alien to fear, which has left permanent scars upon my mind. I must confess I lost faith in the sanity of the world when I saw it suffering the painful disorder of this island.

A blind fate, a vast pitiless mechanism, seemed to cut and shape the fabric of existence, and I, Moreau (by his passion for research), Montgomery (by his passion for drink), the Beast People, with their instincts and mental restrictions, were torn and crushed, ruthlessly, inevitably, amid the infinite complexity of its incessant wheels. But this condition did not come all at once...I think indeed that I anticipate a little in speaking of it now.

This sentiment still reverberates today. I hear it echoed in Ginsberg's infamous first lines of Howl: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix. There's something primitive in Ginsberg's feeling of desolation and I sense the same in Prendick's lament.

As a society, we cope with watershed changes in a myriad of ways, but we have to deal with them nonetheless. But what does it mean to feel this way? Can we always change things for the better? Should we leave life, science, nature, better left untouched? I don't know.

I leave Dr. Moreau with more questions than answers...but I prefer literature that way. It is the discoveries I make on my own that validate my experiences.

2006-08-30T09:16:00.000-04:00

When I decided to give up on writing for a living (thank you Emerson College and your Master's Degree in Print Journalism!) the world opened up to me and didn't close in and suffocate me like I envisioned. Everyday was a battle, questioning myself, questioning my writing. My writing didn't match up to my peers in grad school, let alone the rest of the literary world. The outlook was bleak. My decision had nothing to do with giving up. If anything, it was overcoming a frightening obstacle. I am now able to pursue careers in nearly any field, experiencing places and people without having to sit and write for an editor. I write for myself and that's all I really ever wanted. I'm not Pepys and I don't intend to imitate any such personal journalists, diarists, essayists or even modern bloggers. I've written about this before, but the past few days have been trying, stretching my will to points unknown.

"All writers read, but not all readers write." I don't know exactly who said that and it doesn't particularly matter. In fact, I'm repeating myself, because I know I've written a piece on this before. But the point is, I read. I'm not a critic or reviewer. I'm not articulate enough. I'm a reader. It's what give me breath each morning and keeps me awake at night, listening to the creaking of the window panes. It is what I've become.

Last night, I continued reading Allen Ginsberg's journals from the 1950s. It is this experience that has reinforced my decision. I could never compare to genius. He was about 30 years-old when he started these journals in 1954 and his mind grasped words, concepts, structure and history as well as anyone. I'll be 30 in three years, by then, maybe I'll be able to understand half of what I read. Ginsberg knew he was to be a 20th Century Whitman. It was his destiny to write of a life, his life. It was his salvation. My salvation comes in a form of voyeurism, where I get to sneak into his bedroom late at night and steal through his journal. My salvation is in this reading. My nirvana comes with the crafted printed word.

(For a related article, check out Emily Barton's review of Francine Prose's new book on writing in the NY Times.)

2006-08-29T08:23:00.000-04:00

I don't know why I haven't written in nearly a week. Probably just laziness. I've been reading Byatt's Possession and only have about 190 pages left. It's longer than I thought it was, but it's good. I'm not totally impressed with the language, but the story's fairly entertaining.

I've also been finishing The Island of Dr. Moreau. I'm still surprised how much I've enjoyed the book. I didn't finish my extra credit book, The Time Machine, but I Wells has been a more than pleasant surprise.

2006-08-22T08:16:00.000-04:00

It was either last year or earlier this year that I first read Ward Just. Just is a former journalist and war correspondent. An Unfinished Season was a well written book, but it just didn't affect me. However, his latest novel (a Houghton Mifflin title)Forgetfulness reads like it was written by a man under intense pressure, using as few words possibly to convey a point or express something. Now I know why Just is heralded with such acclaim. Reading his prose is like taking part in a fight. Each line hits you harder and harder. By the end of the book, I already know I'm going to be KO'd.

She was trying to put her mind in another place altogether but was so far unsuccessful. She was unable to free herself of the forest. It seemed to her the very end of the known world so she conjured images of welcome aliens. For now she was in the hands of strangers, dubious men who did not belong here. So she spoke aloud, telling them to be careful, to take their time, not to be so rough. She was no longer young, as they could see. And she was injured and not herself. She thought to add, "Please."

Florette, a fifty-five year old French woman, married to an American and living in the shadow of the Pyrenees, has injured herself while taking a hike in the foothills of the mountains that lead to Spain and beyond. But the men taking her down the hill in a stretcher are strangers. Florette's pain comes in rushes and her mind wanders, but it's her desire for the mundane cigarette or to take a pee, that makes the situation too real. I can picture soldiers in Vietnam being mortally wounded, being husked back to awaiting choppers, but asking for a cigarette in their dying breaths. Here Just, reflects this intense and common urge onto the reader, making us all too aware that we would probably react the same way if the situation were reversed.

Now reading:
Ward Just Forgetfulness
H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau
H.G. Wells The Time Machine

Just finished:
Jack Kerouac Tristessa
Sarah Waters Fingersmith

2006-08-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

The start, I think I know too well. It is the first of my mistakes

I imagine a table, slick with blood. The blood is my mother's. There is too much of it. There is so much of it, I think it runs, like ink. I think, to save the boards beneath, the women have set down china bowls; and so the silence between my mother's cries are filled-drip drop! drip drop!-with what might be the staggered beating of clocks. Beyond the beat come other, fainter cries: the shrieks of lunatics, the shouts and scolds of nurses. For this is a madhouse. My mother is mad. The table has straps upon it to keep her from plunging to the floor; another strap separates her legs, so that I might emerge from between them. When I am born, the straps remain: the women fear she will tear me in two! They put me upon her bosom and my mouth finds out her breast. I suck, and the house falls silent about me. There is only, still, that falling blood-drip drop! drop drop!-the beat telling off the first few minutes of my life, the last of hers. For soon, the clocks run slow. My mother's bosom rises and falls, rises again; then sinks for ever.

I feel it, and suck harder. Then the women pluck me from her. And when I weep, they hit me.

- Sarah Waters Fingersmith

2006-08-15T22:58:00.000-04:00

It's getting darker earlier. With the 8 o'clock hour, comes the twilight. Only minutes later, the houses and trees whimper in the permanent shadows of night. Windows, lit from within act as beacons for the bugs repeatedly hitting the screens. They could be heard if all were quiet on the street. But it's never quiet. Not that quiet.

(But it's a perfect setting to read Sarah Water's Fingersmith)

2006-08-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

No one warned me. Hardy ends the last quarter of Jude the Obscure with such a devastating event, that I put the book down and just stared at it for a few moments. I won't give the details away and spoil the terribly sad plot. Once the catastrophe takes place, our heroine, Sue, becomes unhinged, taking to church and prayer daily, wanting nothing to do with poor Jude. The circumstances of their relationship are complicated to say the least, but Sue only compounds the situation at times. Sue was an individual and unique woman who wanted nothing to do of the traditional modes of life. She was not religious, but ended up changing her life based on repentence and religion. She was never keen on marriage, but ended up in loveless marriage, for the second time to the same man. This strong person was defeated by society and her own compulsive impulses, leaving Jude alone in the cruel world they once shared.

Yet, Hardy made Sue likeable past the point I would have thought. He didn't simply turn her over to make a point. He split up the two lovers, who were like one, to show how grief is assumed and love endured. Lincoln said a 'house divided can not stand' and I think that somehow fits this story. Together, Jude and Sue could withstand the taunts, jealousies and setbacks because they had one another. Seperated, they were destroyed souls, walking, but not living.

Just finished:
Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure

Now reading:
H.G. Wells The Time Machine
Sarah Waters Fingersmith

On deck:
H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau

2006-08-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

One meme, two meme, three meme...here's another via Litlove

1. First book to leave a lasting impression? Looking back, I guess William Saroyan's The Human Comedy has resonated with me through the years. Freshman year of high school, we had to read this and I never read anything like it before. It was the first 'real' thing I had read and Saroyan's language spoke to me and still does.

2. Which author would you most like to be? Before I thought about the questions, I figured I'd put Kerouac, but I don't think that's my choice. John Clellon Holmes was a brilliant and a truly gifted writer and friend of Ginsberg and Kerouac. He was married and considered more of a square than the rest of the Beats. He lived a normal suburban life and this pseudo-outsider status gave him great insight. I'd like to be John Clellon Holmes.

3. Name the book that has made you want to visit a place I was trying to think of something exotic and unique, but I kept on thinking of only two places...New York City in the 1950s and Walden Pond. I'll go with Walden Pond because I have been there and I'll leave 1950s New York and the automats in Times Square to my dreams.

4. Which contemporary author will be read in 100 years time? J.M. Coetzee

5. Which book would you recommend to a teenager reluctant to try 'literature'? In my head, I was thinking of a book each for a teenage boy and a book for a teenage girl, but didn't want to make a distinction. How about John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces?

6. Name your best recent literary discovery Within the past year, I've read Maeve Brennan, Margaret Atwood and Julian Barnes for the first time. I'll go with Maeve Brennan because her book Notes of the Long-Winded Lady were as close to E.B. White as one can get.

7. Which author's fictional world would you most like to live in? As an observer, sitting on a porch in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.

8. Name your favorite poet Hart Crane? Kerouac? Auden? Edna St. Vincent Millay? Allen Ginsberg's poetry trumps them. It still blows me away.

9. What's the best non-fiction book you've read this year? E.B. White's essay, Second Tree from the Corner. But for a longer book, I'm reading Mark Anderson's Shakespeare by Another Name: the Biography of Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford.

10. Which auther do you think is much better than his/her reputation? I think E.B. White is widely recognized as children's author, but he is a brilliant writer and I can't say enough about him. But for this question, I'm going to choose my favorite writer, Jack Kerouac. Kerouac sometimes gets a quick look when people talk/write about literature. And if he is brought up, only On the Road is mentioned. However, his canon of work is varied and plentiful, but most of all, it's unique in vision and wonderfully written.

2006-08-12T23:22:00.000-04:00

I bought three more frames today and was thinking of using these photos.

2006-08-12T23:12:00.000-04:00

I was out all day today and had Jude on my mind the whole time. I kept wanting to get back to my apartment to see where Mr. Fawley led me today. Back to the arms of his first wife Arabella who suddenly showed up in Christminster? Did our hero compromise the marriage of his beloved cousin Sue and proclaim his undying love for her? Was it time for him to begin a life anew, with neither of the women? Well, I know he does end up with Sue before something terrible happens, but I still don't know what will become of Jude and his love. Hardy hints at the tragedy that befalls Jude's family with forebodings of failed marriages, early deaths and desertion. With it being 11:15 p.m. on a Saturday night and nowhere to go, I guess I'll indulge in a little more Jude tonight as Miles blows quietly in the background. Kind of Blue, Miles? Kind of blue.

2006-08-12T11:24:00.000-04:00

I'm certainly guilty of this...

2006-08-11T23:19:00.000-04:00

I'm still surprised when a certain auther resonates with me. Thomas Hardy is one of these authors. I read Far from the Madding Crowd last year and couldn't get the characters out of my mind. Their British stoicism, wit, charm and good sense still felt real. The late 19th Century English countryside was alive as Bathesba, Gabriel Oak and Farmer Boldwood fought for one another, yearned for one another and slugged through days of hard work, quiet and solitude. The country life, I have nothing to compare it to, I'm a city guy, but the twists of love and struggle for survival were all too familiar.

In Jude the Obscure, Hardy once again awakens my latent sensitivities. Jude Fawley strives to learn. Day and night he dreams of going to college in the city of Christminster. For nearly ten years he works as a stone mason, rebuilding churches and colleges, working feet away from the scholars he wishes to become. Along the way, Jude gets married, his wife leaves him for Australia, he moves to Christminster, falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead and still remains outside the cloistered walls of academia.

The trees overhead deepened the gloom of the hour, and they dripped sadly upon him, impressing him with forebodings - illogical forebodings; for though he knew that he loved her he also knew that he could not be more to her than he was.

At this stage in my life, I relate to Jude at a level that I know would have been missed if I had read the novel at any other time in my life. I'm not doing what I want to do for a living. I'm not living my dream. For good and bad, life has gotten in the way. Bills, loans, rent, are some of the obstacles that make earning a living the be all end all of my existence for the moment. I know I can change my life, but for the moment, like Jude Fawley, I'm still working to get there. The dreams may be receding into the horizon, but they're out there still.

Now reading:
Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure
Mark Anderson Shakespeare by Another Name: A Biography of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man Who Was Shakespeare

On deck:
Sarah Waters Fingersmith

2006-08-10T20:29:00.000-04:00

2006-08-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

I just spent $19 on 5 books on Amazon. I was hoping that since I bought all the books from the same seller that I'd get a discount on shipping, but not so much. I was going to cancel the transaction, but figured, hey, less than $4 a book, not bad. Now the letters of E.B. White, E.B. White: What a Writer, Kerouac's San Francisco Blues (I think I lost my old copy,) H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau, for the Slaves' new read, and John Clellon Holmes's The Horn will all be occupants of my library in 2-4 business days. Such is the life of a bibliophile. Exhilrating, I know.

2006-08-09T12:13:00.000-04:00

I saw this list a few days ago over at Danielle's A Work in Progress and thought I'd take a shot. I do love lists...

1. ONE BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE Remarque's classic All Quiet on the Western Front was the book that got me reading. It got me interested in lives outside my own. I was in seventh grade and had to do my first big book report. This book opened up the rest of the world for me and I haven't stopped since.

2. ONE BOOK THAT YOU'VE READ MORE THAN ONCE Moby Dick is the book I've read the most, only about three times. I think it's the greatest novel in the English language.

3. ONE BOOK THAT YOU'D WANT ON A DESERT ISLAND I would have to say Don Quixote. I couldn't imagine getting tired of it, no matter how long I stayed on the island.

4. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU LAUGH John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces has to be the smartest, funniest, serious book I've ever read. A perfect read.

5. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY I can't say I've cried while reading or after I've finished a book. But I could have cried for Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's The Idiot or Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

6. ONE BOOK THAT YOU WISH HAD BEEN WRITTEN Danielle mentioned Harper Lee's second novel and I agree with that. I would have liked to see Whitman try his hand at a novel. An epic of America, the Civil War, Brooklyn. That I would have read.

7. ONE BOOK THAT YOU WISH HAD NEVER BEEN WRITTEN Mein Kampf

8. ONE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING E.M. Forster's first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread. My first Forster and I can't say I'm highly impressed.

9. ONE BOOK YOU'VE BEEN MEANING TO READ Shelby Foote's first volume of the Civil War. I'm halfway through, but haven't finished it yet. I'll get there. Book I've been meaning to read, but have never opened? List is endless...

Thanks for the idea Danielle!