Playing Catch-Up
July 23rd, 2003
What I remember reading in the last month or
so
so
Finally finished Mark Epstein’s Thoughts Without
a Thinker, which for a relatively short book in relatively straightforward
language just took me forever. Think I made reference to it in another blog
entry. A quick read was Laurie King’s Keeping Watch — her website, by
the way, has sort a nice little essay on
why she writes mystery which helps me a little with some of the compulsion to
avert my eyes when I’m admitting my taste in books. Keeping Watch has a
Vietnam veteran as protagonist and somehow King’s description of his tour, while
horrendous, was comprehensible to me in a way nothing else I’ve ever read about
the conflict has been. Also quick and fun and in the murder mystery genre are
Ayelet Waldman’s Mommy Track Mysteries — Nursery Crimes, The Big
Nap, and Playdate with Death, and, just published, I haven’t read it
yet, Death Gets a Time-Out. I love her website
for her including a log of the books she reads. I also read Gretchen Moran
Laskas’ Midwife’s Tale, I’m now halfway through Eugenides’
Middlesex. Our family finished Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix finally last week, and Aodán has got me reading Lemony
Snicket’s books to him. I’ve read a chapter of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek here and there, and been swept away with how beautiful her
writing is, shocked that I’d never heard of her before this spring, and I’ve
read essays by M.F.K. Fisher’s Art of Eating and from Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale when I have
time. I foolishly wandered into Half-Priced Books this week and picked up a
couple things for the kids and a biography of Dorothy Parker for myself that I’m
looking forward to getting to… It’s a little crazy always having a couple of
books going, but it’s like trying to eat a well-balanced diet. Aodán
asked me what my favorite book was, and I was stymied, some books are useful,
some are beautiful, some are fun, some confirm my beliefs, some open me to new
ideas, most are some combination of these.
a Thinker, which for a relatively short book in relatively straightforward
language just took me forever. Think I made reference to it in another blog
entry. A quick read was Laurie King’s Keeping Watch — her website, by
the way, has sort a nice little essay on
why she writes mystery which helps me a little with some of the compulsion to
avert my eyes when I’m admitting my taste in books. Keeping Watch has a
Vietnam veteran as protagonist and somehow King’s description of his tour, while
horrendous, was comprehensible to me in a way nothing else I’ve ever read about
the conflict has been. Also quick and fun and in the murder mystery genre are
Ayelet Waldman’s Mommy Track Mysteries — Nursery Crimes, The Big
Nap, and Playdate with Death, and, just published, I haven’t read it
yet, Death Gets a Time-Out. I love her website
for her including a log of the books she reads. I also read Gretchen Moran
Laskas’ Midwife’s Tale, I’m now halfway through Eugenides’
Middlesex. Our family finished Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix finally last week, and Aodán has got me reading Lemony
Snicket’s books to him. I’ve read a chapter of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek here and there, and been swept away with how beautiful her
writing is, shocked that I’d never heard of her before this spring, and I’ve
read essays by M.F.K. Fisher’s Art of Eating and from Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale when I have
time. I foolishly wandered into Half-Priced Books this week and picked up a
couple things for the kids and a biography of Dorothy Parker for myself that I’m
looking forward to getting to… It’s a little crazy always having a couple of
books going, but it’s like trying to eat a well-balanced diet. Aodán
asked me what my favorite book was, and I was stymied, some books are useful,
some are beautiful, some are fun, some confirm my beliefs, some open me to new
ideas, most are some combination of these.
