What are you reading?
by chuckofish
What have you been reading lately? Besides reading about Quakers (see yesterday’s post), I have started and stopped several books that I just couldn’t get into. It is so hard to find good fiction. These books were all well-written, but the characters just didn’t engage me. I am no longer “the good girl” who feels obligated to finish a book once I’ve started. I’m over that–are you?
Even though I have already read Moby-Dick, I read Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick. It made me want to read Moby-Dick again! I found a copy of the author’s In the Heart of the Sea at an estate sale, and I plan to read this account of the real-life whaling ship Essex and the whale that attacked it. It ought to be good.
I have just started Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Gate of Angels. She is so good and so very funny (in a very British way) but you have to pay attention. She is not an easy read. I’ll let you know if I make it through.
I have a few new “coffee table” books which I have been enjoying. American Writers At Home is wonderful, as you can imagine. If you want to buy yourself a present, I recommend this. I got mine used on Amazon.
I am always doing research you know, so I have been delving into this old chestnut. DeVoto is pretty darn good.
This is an old favorite that I took off my shelf–Roger Angell’s memoir of growing up in New York City as the son and step-son of New Yorker stalwarts Katharine White and E.B. White. He is one of those guys like whom they do not make anymore.
What are you reading?
dual personalities 
Good to know I’m not all alone..there are number of books that just don’t click for me.. ‘ Love during the time of cholera’ by G.G Marquez is one such book..tried reading it many a times but left it halfway ..presently reading ‘ Emperor of all maladies: A biography of cancer..
I looked this book up (Emperor of all maladies) and it looks fascinating!
🙂
So many good books…at the moment I’m reading Spike Milligan’s hilarious “Hitler: My part in his downfall”, the first part of his seven volume (they’re very short) memoir about WWII. Maybe I’ll blog about it!
Yes, do! 🙂
I have been toting an old copy of DeVoto’s Course of Empire around for years but never bothered to read…it belonged to my parents. Just the other day, I debated tossing it when I was reshelving our books but am now glad I didn’t…will definitely take a look based on your recommendation. This is not to be confused with artist Thomas Cole’s series of paintings of the same name I recently viewed at the New York Historical Society. Roger Angell’s New York memoirs also sounds like a fun read. Thanks!
My pater, as I remember, was an admirer of DeVoto. I just bought this copy used and, no doubt, already have a copy somewhere! His subject matter is right up my alley.
I would have given you my copy but not now…I want to take a look!
I was just thinking, during the drive in to work this morning, that probably the time has come to re-read Benjamin Graham’s (with David Dodd) ‘Security Analysis.’ Any Edition will do, but the 1951 is the classic.
Pretty boring to most people though.
OMG–this would be torture for me. Pure and simple.
I’m rereading Hawthorne’s _The Blithedale Romance_, which, as you know, is my LEAST favorite of his romances! But it’s still good. Bob just gave me a new Norton Anthology, so I’ll be leafing through that as well.
I’m going to put ‘The Blithedale Romance’ on my list too. I have a lot of catching up to do with Hawthorne.