Re-Approaching a High School Level
I will easily read two more books before I leave for Europe, putting my 2007 total at nine. Riding the bus to Belltown three days per week has certainly increased my throughput and I hope to continue the trend to consume over thirty books this year.
Saramago’s The Double easily supplanted A Fine Balance as the finest work of fiction I have read this year. Despite utilizing unique style and forgoing paragraph breaks completely, the Nobel laureate spins a captivating, intense tale. I thought I had predicted the end but Saramago twisted again in the last chapter and I was left stunned.
I cannot remember when I was last able to read so much—either my schedule or lack of motivation never allowed it. I think my vocabularly and reading speed are improving, possibly even to my intellectual peak of high school senior year.
Ooh, I know one of my books this year will be the new Harry Potter. (Did I just blow all my intellectual cred?) Do you have any further recommendations for me?
From laura
Commented March 20th, 2007 8:29 am
I’ve been reading mostly short stories, my favorite of which so far is “7C” in McSweeny’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories. The rest were a little hit and miss, but that one was genius.
Other than that, so far this year I really liked Snow Crash and rather enjoyed Stranger than Fiction, Chuck Palahniuk’s collection of nonfiction.
Last year I read I, Claudius and really liked it. I also thoroughly enjoyed Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I also discovered Jack Vance for surprisingly well-written adventure sci-fi. You can tell what my reading list has been skewed towards.