Guest Post: Reading Shelf
In this very first guest post, the very well-read stivalineri tells us about his reading shelf...
It's not a shelf actually, I have books in every room.
At bedtime, I'm reading Samuel Steward's "Chapters from an Autobiography". Steward is better known for his erotica written as Phil Andros, but this book talks about his sexual and intellectual life, and his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and André Gide, among others.
At the dining table at lunch I'm reading "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Zoet" by David Mitchell, who wrote the brilliant "Cloud Atlas." Jacob Zoet is a Dutch trading emissary to Japan in 1800, when the only access was a tiny island of foreigners off Nagasaki, here he meets a Japanese midwife and falls in love. In the
Bathroom is a rack that holds magazines like Vanity Fair and New Yorkers that I haven't read in a timely fashion, so all the news stories are out of date.
The living room has the New Yorkers that are new or relatively fresh. I rarely read the fiction in them, I don't care that much for literature about contemporaneous people, unless they live in a country with a culture that's vastly different than my own. Also in the living room is "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" by Philip Pullman, I haven't started that yet, I kind of know how it's going to play out.
In the kitchen, I've got Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home" which is good for cooking inspiration, even though his tone is that sort of Cali-snotty that I find really annoying. I just finished "Chéri" by Colette and loaned it to a friend of mine. It was published in a wonderful dual language edition, which made it really easy to read the French and not take such a break in the story to look up a word for "fireplace fender" that isn't worth committing to memory.
I try to read a book in French every year to refresh my memory. I can't recommend "Chéri" highly enough, especially if you have familiarity with dating a much younger or much older person.
On my iPod touch, that I read when I'm waiting somewhere or at a restaurant when I'm eating alone, I've just finished "Against a Dark Background" by Iain M. Banks, which is sort of a space opera with hard science fiction elements.
Now I'm reading "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin which details the intellectual journey made by a young New Orleans wife and mother in 1895.
Brilliant, and clearly a readaholic.
If you'd like to write a guest post on your reading passions, just send me a message to my LJ mailbox.
It's not a shelf actually, I have books in every room.
At bedtime, I'm reading Samuel Steward's "Chapters from an Autobiography". Steward is better known for his erotica written as Phil Andros, but this book talks about his sexual and intellectual life, and his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and André Gide, among others.
At the dining table at lunch I'm reading "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Zoet" by David Mitchell, who wrote the brilliant "Cloud Atlas." Jacob Zoet is a Dutch trading emissary to Japan in 1800, when the only access was a tiny island of foreigners off Nagasaki, here he meets a Japanese midwife and falls in love. In the
Bathroom is a rack that holds magazines like Vanity Fair and New Yorkers that I haven't read in a timely fashion, so all the news stories are out of date.
The living room has the New Yorkers that are new or relatively fresh. I rarely read the fiction in them, I don't care that much for literature about contemporaneous people, unless they live in a country with a culture that's vastly different than my own. Also in the living room is "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" by Philip Pullman, I haven't started that yet, I kind of know how it's going to play out.
In the kitchen, I've got Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home" which is good for cooking inspiration, even though his tone is that sort of Cali-snotty that I find really annoying. I just finished "Chéri" by Colette and loaned it to a friend of mine. It was published in a wonderful dual language edition, which made it really easy to read the French and not take such a break in the story to look up a word for "fireplace fender" that isn't worth committing to memory.
I try to read a book in French every year to refresh my memory. I can't recommend "Chéri" highly enough, especially if you have familiarity with dating a much younger or much older person.
On my iPod touch, that I read when I'm waiting somewhere or at a restaurant when I'm eating alone, I've just finished "Against a Dark Background" by Iain M. Banks, which is sort of a space opera with hard science fiction elements.
Now I'm reading "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin which details the intellectual journey made by a young New Orleans wife and mother in 1895.
Brilliant, and clearly a readaholic.
If you'd like to write a guest post on your reading passions, just send me a message to my LJ mailbox.