So, maybe you’re curious about what books people are reading right now. I’ll start with new fiction. There’s a lot of interesting new books out there right now. The book that everyone is talking about remains The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. Lethem has recently been interviewed in periodicals ranging from Entertainment Weekly to the Paris Review, and the book is the current pick for countless book clubs. Despite the hype, this book is a worthy read, and you’ll have something to talk about at cocktail parties. In the category of science fiction for those who don’t typically read science fiction comes Quicksilver, the first book in a new series by Neal Stephenson. The book has been out for a week and is already flying off the shelves, most likely to the very same folks who are always telling me how much they love Stephenson’s previous novels, especially Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. Meanwhile, Zoe Heller is nearing breakthrough status with her second novel What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal, which is about a teacher who carries on an affair with her fifteen year old student. It sounds trashy, but from what I hear it turns out to be a nuanced and moving character study. It’s been short-listed for the Booker Prize and is beginning to sell accordingly. Also short-listed and selling incredibly well in England is Brick Lane by Monica Ali. Following in the footsteps of fellow young Londoner Zadie Smith, Ali’s debut novel is another unsparing look at multi-cultural London. Finally, another debut, this one is a cleverly wrought time traveling romance by Audrey Niffenegger titled, appropriately, The Time Traveler’s Wife. So there you go. A few things to read this fall. Stayed tuned for the next installment: new non-fiction.
My Birthday: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon
When I graduated the first time: Margaret A. Salinger's Dream Catcher
Second Graduation: Difficult to tell because he quit recording the month.
I found it interesting to see what he read while I was fighting in Iraq. I read what ever I could get my hands on, which was usually a book a person found on their bookshelf– dusty, dogeared, and unwanted– and placed into an office or church care package. Most FOBs had a stack of these books for trade. I traveled around so I would take a book from one location and trade it at the next FOB. This helped a twenty to thirty book library rotate its inventory. Art and I both ended up reading the Da Vinci Code around the same time. (A soldier I knew received it for Christmas.) None of the other books were the same. (Note: Shackleton's Valiant Voyage a book I picked up at FOB Tiger and left at FOB Byers, is great. I didn't see it on Art's list, but I didn't look though all 40 years.)
Oh man, I suddenly feel really old, apparently he didn't know how to read when I was born! I also feel lazy and unorganized, not only have I not read that many books, I forgot to write them all down! He was reading "Childhood's End" when I graduated from HS, which would make me…:-)