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Mark Twain's Roughing It, great book, full of humor and wit. In these days of global communication networks, reading such books of travel literature, an admittely 'obsolete' genre, it makes me wonder if we didn't miss something in this world of overwhelming information.

After I read Roughing It, I'm always tempted to jump in my car and recreate the journey (that would be a good idea for a book also!).

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I recently read Douglas Coupland's "Life After God" and Hari Kunzru's "My Revolutions". Both were very solid reads, yet neither felt completely satisfying. After I'm done getting through these Dexter DVDs, I'm going to pick up some Murakami or some Philip K. Dick.

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The Collect Stories of Lydia Davis. Heard some good and bad things about this book, even though the New York Times had a rave review. I must say that I'm very impressed (and I'm only 150 pages in) by Davis, as in this book you can see her experimenting with the short story form, and succeeding. Highly recommended to short story fans -- heck, to anyone who likes good writing.

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edit for grammar & spelling.

I'm finding that these stories contain a great sense of isolation, with the characters locked inside their heads, and have no ability to reach out and connect with others. Short stories of isolation, yet of people wondering how to break out of that loneliness. Kind of a downer in some ways, but I'm 2/3 the way through, so I'll keep on going -- supposedly the last collection of stories in this book is very good.

Edited by Matthew
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To Ballantine's credit, they also had several other collections out at least one of which simultaneously, and between them all nearly all the stories were in print.

There's also a few softcver collections out now that get them all out there.

Amazing stories. I read about a third of this book and then set it aside so I can extend the pleasure. I love the tone of his writing, the humor and the love, the color and the cleverness.(I've previously read almost all the stories at least once).

Edited by jazzbo
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Voinovich's Moscow 2042, which just showed up.

I've gotten a little off-track reading forbidden Soviet literature, but soon I will be returning to Narayan and Mahfouz.

Moscow 2042 is quite good, quite droll in some places. I don't have it at hand, or I would quote him on prophets and beards, for example. Basically, the plot is that an exiled writer gets a ticket to go visit Moscow in the future (2042 -- knock wood, I'll live to see this, though it probably seemed like forever in the early 80s when written). Pure communism is practiced only in Moscow, which is walled off from the rest of the world, and it has reached new levels of brutality. On the other hand, most Muscovites are also secret Simites (followers of a writer very much like Solzhenitsyn with a pinch of Tolstoy thrown in). It should surprise no one that ultimately the government is overthrown and a new Tsar comes to power. Indeed, I wouldn't go quite so far as to say Putin has tsar-like powers, but the Russian character does seem to respect or at least respond to authoritarianism. One interesting twist is that the writer is venerated in the future because of a book he wrote, which turns out to be one he hasn't yet writen -- and which contains his report on what he found in the future. Several people, in the future as well as the present, try to get him to change the book to see if it will change the future, but he wisely refuses.

Then I read Venedikt Erofeev's Moscow to the End of the Line, which is sort of a prose-poem on alcohol consumption and its consequences. I didn't find it particularly enjoyable, but it was engaging, sort of like watching a writer labor under deep compulsions. I was reminded a bit of Christopher Smart's For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry actually.

Also reading a non-fiction book called Divided Cities for a book review. Then back to my master plan for the year.

Divided%20Cities.jpg

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Also reading a non-fiction book called Divided Cities for a book review. Then back to my master plan for the year.

Divided%20Cities.jpg

That looks interesting! A few years ago I did a taxi tour of the scenes of the Troubles in Belfast. I was amazed to see 40 foot high steel barriers separating the sectarian areas of the city. Most Brits have no idea of this and fondly imagine you have to go Israel to see such things!

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Also reading a non-fiction book called Divided Cities for a book review. Then back to my master plan for the year.

Divided%20Cities.jpg

That looks interesting! A few years ago I did a taxi tour of the scenes of the Troubles in Belfast. I was amazed to see 40 foot high steel barriers separating the sectarian areas of the city. Most Brits have no idea of this and fondly imagine you have to go Israel to see such things!

I'll second Bill's sentiments--will have to check this book out as well.

Getting ready to start Kevin Starr's EMBATTLED DREAMS: CALIFORNIA IN WAR AND PEACE, 1940-1950:

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It is interesting so far. The author's premise is that the nature and character of Ancient Egypt and ancient Egyptians is not best served by Western interpretations; as an Egyptian he feels he brings a different insight into the facts and suppositions.

So far I know from the preface that he subscribes to the very interesting theory of Osman re: an Egyptian dynasty and the Jewish kings and leaders Mosses, David and Solomon. And that he believes that a certain huge block of limestone in the form of a lion with a man's head may be much older than 4500 years. Of what I've read before he seems to be presenting a view of ancient Egyptian character and religion that is consistent with some of the western versions, the more open minded ones. He, as some more modern Western scholars, sees the multiple "gods" as "angels" and all aspects of the one true god Re (Ra). He is going to make claims that Egyptian religion is the fountainhead and bedrock of Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious thought and expression, a claim that I will have little animosity towards.

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