What Are You Reading??

I'm reading my autographed copy of Hessler's new book, Country Driving. Quite amusing thus far.

I'm also looking through some more old copies of the Paris Review. I have Winter/Spring '64, Fall '75, and Summer 2003.

Just finished reading Catcher in the Rye to see what all the fuss is about. It was good, but I am past the targeted age group. Moving on to Nine Stories next.

I read half a dozen books over the holidays. Among them were:

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. A fascinating study about the intangible things that determine success and mediocrity.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore A really moving novel about a family trying to survive the siege of Leningrad.

Reading Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' atm. Writing style has most definitely changed since Da Vinci Code, chapters are short as, very Hollywood movie-like jumps.

Nice to learn about some history and monuments in DC though.

Reading Nemesis by Max Hastings about WWII in the Pacific. It's a real eye-opener/myth-buster.

I'm reading Moments in Peking by Lin Yutang. Unfortunately for the book I just got a box from the US filled with magazines, so the book has taken a back seat for the moment. It is quite good though.

i am reading some Stories of adventure which thrill me.novels about robbing graves r more popular.

Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh.  Vietnam War from the perspective of a North Vietnamese soldier.  An interesting view.

Puckoon by Spike Milligan. Hilarious. I've read a lot of his books including his war memoirs but i'd never had chance to read this. I'm loving it and will probably be finished in a few more hours.

George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones - I'm loving it

The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins.  The better sort of Victorian melodrama, and usually classified as one of literature's earliest detective novels.   I'm enjoying it, but my reason for selecting it is mundanely economic:  English language literature here is hard to come by and grossly overpriced, but this book (a Penguin Popular Classics edition) has a torn cover and some marks of being "foxed", and was on special offer at half price (still considerably more expensive than it would have been in Britain).

"The Early Arrival of Dreams" - Rosemary Mahoney

Heard about it for years, but never ran across it. The new teacher had it with him and asked me if I had ever read it.

"No"

Boom! Weekend reading

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

I'm not sure what to say about it. A cowboy novel about a nameless kid who falls in with scalp hunters killing their way through Mexico. It's powerful and unsettling and disgusting, but what a book. Well worth reading.

Hit the Beijing bookshops yesterday and bought half-a-dozen books. 

I'm halfway through Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" - very interesting. 

Also bought "The Outliers", plus Xin Ran's "Miss Chopsticks". 

Presently re-reading Flanagan's Run, a novel based on the Bunion Derby of 1928.  Marathon running across the USA. Darn good read.