Call for books
There are times when I feel like reading anything, since there's something interesting in just about everything in print. Right now, though, I only want to read really good books. Unfortunately for me, I've been disappointed with the past few books I've picked up. I'd appreciate if you'd share with me the books that you really enjoy, so I can enjoy them too. I don't mean your favorite books necessarily, but books that have been the most pleasurable to read. After all, my reading (and yours) will be dictated by the man/university soon enough. For now, help me have fun.
posted by Nina at 8:33 PM
6 Comments:
Here's a few books that were really fun for me:
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
I was actually thinking of the Kite Runner when I read your post as a book you might enjoy, so I'm glad it's on your list. That may well be the only really "enjoyable" read on my shelf in the sense that it's pleasurable to read and you can engage it at several different levels--i.e. have the option of not banging your head over it. I read Leviathan and the Air Pump over winter break and thought it was brilliant, but that's probably just because I was already interested pretty seriously in the topic (history of science type stuff). My Mom's a realy Pearl Buck fan, and there are a lot of books under that authorship. My Mom also went through an Edith Wharton phase not too long ago. Not to imply you're my Mom, Nina, but you do have some overlap in your reading tastes. Kafka's fun, and you know I have a thing for Derrida. If you're looking for a good Derrida text to start out on, you might want to try something like Given Time Part I, Chapters 3 & 4, which are about a curious little short story of Baudillaire's (forgive spelling). He also wrote an interesting article called What Is Poetry (Ce Cose La Poesia, I think, in Italian) for an Italian magazine. That might even be enjoyable to non-Derridians.
Funny. I am within a hundred pages of finishing Atonement. From the general enthusiasm, I assume it does not drop off in Part 3. Recently I have read, and enjoyed, Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson (perhaps not ideal if you are home alone for a week with no company except for your two dogs, as I was at the time), P.G. Wodehouse (impossible to be unhappy reading Wodehouse), Trollope (if you like that kind of thing, there are 47 novels), and Umberto Eco (maybe not "fun" exactly). I have had a recommendation for Snow by Orhan Pamuk which I may read soon. In my family, when looking for fun, we generally re-read books. Old standbys include The Lord of the Rings, the With Fire and Sword Trilogy (by Henryk Sienkiewicz; also Quo Vadis), The Count of Monte Cristo or the Three Musketeers trilogy (the two main books principly), and the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey Maturin series (you can also get a cookbook and a CD which are fun). Length is of the essence here. Oh, and when we are in Germany, as I will be tomorrow, we often read Agatha Christie mysteries. There you have it, the story of my life.
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By the way, I made no effort whatsoever to screen my recommendations for books I think you would like, they are just books I like. I am self-centered like that.
Housekeeping by Robinson was by far one of the most horrible books I've ever been in the same room with. I was trying to read it on the NJTransit train from NYC to Maplewood during my first trip to NJ for the TASP reunion party. That memory is the only good thing I have to associate with it.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith was interesting. Not lifechanging but a good read.
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