Latest reads

It's been a while, so here's a catch-up of what I've been reading the last months.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, Welcome to the Monkey House

Craig, a doorman at the Tam, was always reading and highly recommending him, and since I had only read his Slaughterhouse Five before I wanted to read some more. This is a great short story collection, from which I only knew about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow from before, but it's a solid collection with lots of good stories in there.

Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings

I've read him before, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts and Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, I believe, and really likes his style. This novel is set in Turkey and really captures the moods, geography, and history well (or at least so it feels like).

W Somerset Maugham, Collected Short Stories vol 1, 2, 4

As you perhaps can tell I really wanted to read some Somerset Maugham. He's great and the short story format really suits him. Excellent travel writing, it takes you away to wherever he is, be it Malaysia, India, or London. Three volumes of short stories (the library thankfully didn't have vol 3 or I'd read that, too), is a bit much to handle, though.

Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

My first book by Miller. I had something completely different in mind, must have confused him with someone else, Nelson Algren perhaps, but I've read him so shouldn't be. I thought it was going to be more polished, but this is some pretty gritty stuff. Good book though!

Henry Miller, Black Spring

My library didn't have Tropic of Capricorn so I continued my Miller feast with this one. Don't really remember it to be honest, but I think it was good.

Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi

The last book of Miller my library had so I snagged that as well. Great travel writing, really puts him up there with Ryszard Kapuściński, Bruce Chatwin, and Robert Byron.

Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

McCarthy as you know him, western style, set on the border (across and on both sides) between USA and Mexico. Tough guys with set minds and their adventures. Not as good as Blood Meridian or The Road, though.

Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing

The second installment of his Border Trilogy, unfortunately the library doesn't have the third, Cities of the Plain. Good read just like the first, but I fell pretty done with McCarthy at this point.

Elmore Leonard, Cuba Libre

Felt like I had heard of this so picked it up. Kind of fun, sort of like a western set in Cuba, good beach read I guess, but nothing to make fuss about.

Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

Ah, Kafka. I'm a big fan. Read anything he's written. This novel is short, too, so you'll have it done with in no-time.

Michael Chabon, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Chose it much for the cover and for The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I read a while back. Entertaining reading, all about the rise and fall of the comic world. Some nods to the greats like Stan Lee.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle

I first read Solzhenitsyn bumming around Greece, it was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and have since read The Cancer Ward and The Gulag Archipelago (but not The Red Wheel, which is supposed to be good, has anyone read it?), and they have all been really good. The First Circle didn't disappoint. Well written in an engaging way he makes you feel for the prison inmates as well as the guards and the politicians that put them there.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

I'm just going to come out and say it, Hawthorne is overrated. Sure, it was an OK book, had a few memorable passages, but all in all, not worthy the epitaph a classic. Which goes for his The Scarlet Letter as well, I think, even though it was ages since I read it and it was forced reading in school which tends to turn books into less desirable.

Bob Dylan, Chronicles, volume one

I've never been much for biographies, have nothing against them (as long as you care at least a bit about the person, of course, there are far too many b-list types out there with their memoirs, just like every president or prime minister has to have one these days), just never got into them. This is pretty good though, expected more from the writing but the topics are interesting and give a view of the sometimes troubled and doubting artist, all's not always well with the legends.

I keep plugging away at the library, I'm at S now. If you have better access to books than I do and are looking for book recommendations, I can recommend Flashlight Worthy, he has tons of good stuff for you.