Now reading...

[Brad]

The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence Ritter. A book of interviews of players who were in the Major Leagues in the early 1900s. I first read this book when I was eleven, and it was like reading a science fiction book, because it described a world that was so different and strange. Really? teams went to games in horse drawn carriages? No cars? People were allowed to be strange and different? Who is the world is this Rube Waddell character? John McGraw was the greatest manager ever? The America I was reading about was a strange and wonderful place that was so different then to what I was living, I was enthralled and entranced reading this book. I've returned to it many times over the years, and when I get to the last page of the book, with the great picture of Honus Wagner and John McGraw talking (click on picture for larger view), with the caption underneath: It seems like it all happened yesterday, a wave of emotion always comes over me. Truly, an amazing book of an America and of a way of baseball long gone.

Great book. Read it when I was a kid also; still have it.

[Jazzmoose]

C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station

[Brad]

Reading The Best Hamer History Essays on Lincoln, edited by Sean Wilentz, a collection of essays by some great historians and writers on Lincoln. Recommended.

[Matthew]

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.

edit for grammar & spelling.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Matthew

[ejp626]

Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz

Wondrak and other stories by Stefan Zweig

Hopefully followed by Moscow 2042 by Voinovich (it's still in the mail but should arrive soon)

[jlhoots]

Craig Johnson: Dark Horse

[ghost of miles]

On a real late-period (1935-1940) F. Scott Fitzgerald kick right now:

[fasstrack]

Will Friedwald: Sinatra: The Song is You

Wow, that guy really does his homework! Impressive, and I'm glad he's not a bounty hunter on my ass.

[sal]

"Interpreter of Maladies" - Jhumpa Lahiri

[A Lark Ascending]

The last of the four Javier Falcon quartet. A taught, exciting thriller - given how much running around there is, Hollywood might just get interested.

The Wilson books set in Seville are highly recommended if you enjoy a contemporary thriller/detective novel. There are also two excellent books set in Lisbon.

I must read his first four African novels.

[BillF]

Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Would you believe it, I've never read this before and it's great!

[Harold_Z]

Casares is absolutely terrific. If you dig Borges you'll dig Casares.

[jazzbo]

Pseudo-fringe at times, but interesting stuff for a student of Egyptology and the roots of Christianity such as I.

[carnivore]

I'm now halfway through 'Against the Day' by Thomas Pynchon....anyone here read it since it came out six years ago?

[ghost of miles]

Karen Chilton, HAZEL SCOTT: THE PIONEERING JOURNEY OF A JAZZ PIANIST FROM CAFE SOCIETY TO HOLLYWOOD TO HUAC.

[jeffcrom]

Just finished reading David Fulmer's novel, Jass.

Recommended to me by Paul and others, so I'm reading it now. Nice job on capturing the atmosphere. As to the story - we'll see.

[BillF]

Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel

Classic science fiction!

Cool stuff; I went on a Foundation/Robot series binge a few months ago.

Now moved on to the second Robot novel, The Naked Sun.

[paul secor]

Nick Laird's novel, Glover's Mistake

[ejp626]

Nabokov King, Queen, Knave

to be followed by Voinovich's Moscow 2042, which just showed up.

[thedwork]

just finishing up Silence: Lectures And Writings by John Cage.

i've got the utmost respect for his art (excuse me mr. cage for using that word...) and works. but has anyone else here who has actually plowed through this entire book - without skipping large portions due to exhaustion or annoyance - not wanted to periodically strangle him? quite often while reading this i found myself thinking exasperatedly, "Man, this guy should stick to working w/ sounds and leave the words to others." another thought i had while reading this was that, seemingly, the premise for many of these lectures and writings was to give some kind of insight into process or ideas, but often the result was obfuscation - and intentionally so. that's kind of like lying. and i know the explanation is that Cage wanted to "show" rather than "tell" - but i don't buy it. it's too semantic. it seems like a way to get out of saying words fail; or side-stepping the simple fact that you aren't up to the task of using words to describe something. and let's face it: obfuscation is easy. while clarity, generally and more often, takes more energy, craft, and time.

for me there are positive and creative provcations; and then there are childish, negative provocations. as much as i admire Cage, i experienced much of this book as childish and negative. i don't begrudge anyone's buddhism or zen philosophy, but if it puts you on the road to enjoying being intentionally irritating for the sake of being irritating, i'm not for it. and i know i know, he's irritating so as to give the reader a different perspective. i don't buy it. sometimes being irritating is just that, and nothing else.

not meaning to offend. and like i said, Cage is a master musician. and i have no problem w/ chance operations or indeterminacy as compositional tools. but damn... what a drag it was for me to read this thing. much better to simply experience his music.

[medjuck]

David Thomson's "The Moment of Psycho". Very short book about the film. Recommended if you like the film as much as I do.

[Teasing the Korean]

Faulkner - The Bear

Third time I've read this novella. Amazing on so many different levels. I've read it both including and omitting part 4 - I'm going to include part 4 this time. I think I'll be on a big Faulkner kick after I finish Raymond Chandler detox.

[jlhoots]

Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I'm hooked. Now I'll have to read all 3.

[BillF]

Still with Sherlock Holmes, this time The Sign of Four.

[jazzbo]