I’m having book frustration. I need a new book, but I don’t know what to read. This happens to me sometimes — I desperately want to exercise my mind, get absorbed in a good book, but I’m afraid of making a commitment I might not be able to fulfill.
Over the weekend I bought Robert Dallek’s An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, which just came out in paperback. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m almost 200 pages into it and I’m bored. Last summer I read a biography of Robert Kennedy, which covered much of the same territory. I find RFK much more intriguing, and how much more do I need to know about JFK anyway? Unfortunately, this is a non-returnable book, but I’m going to exercise one of my reader’s rights and put it on my bookshelf, where it will languish until I’m more in the mood for it.
What to read instead? I’m thinking perhaps Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, the first volume of his Baroque Cycle trilogy. I’m really intrigued, although it’s more than 900 pages, and it’s not yet out in paperback so I’d have to lug around a big hardcover, and I only recently finished Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. Any opinions out there? Is it worth reading?
Again, it’s a question of commitment. Sometimes I think my eyes are bigger than my data-stomach (i.e. my brain; the brain is basically a stomach that digests data, right?).
Have you read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? If not, I’d strongly recommend it. It’s rich, detailed, literate (requires about a grade 12 reading level – he loves long words and long sentences). And includes, as a bonus, a moving gay love story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll sit in awstruck amazement at Michael Chabon’s gift for language.
It’s trendy but The Rule of Four is pretty interesting. A cross between The DaVinci Code and The Secret History. I liked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night.
Kavalier and Clay: read it, loved it. Chabon’s a terrific writer.
Jeffrey, maybe I’ll take a look at those… still leaning towards Quicksilver though! :)
Perdito Street Station by China Mieville- that guy has a wicked imagination.
Okay, how about something light and flighty for the summer? Such heavy and laborious reading you do. I am not suggesting Danielle Steele BUT maybe a couple of step above that.
I reccomend A SingleMan by Christopher Isherwood (his best book), After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley (his best book too).
See if you can scrounge up a copy of Sheeper by Irving Rosenthal (far and away the greatest modern work of American literature.)
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Those should keep you guys busy for awhile.