by freckleface » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:05 pm
I'm deeply involved in JG Ballard's The Day of Creation, who also wrote Empire of the Sun (the book) and Crash (the book) and many other books that I will start reading after this one. I can hardly put the idea of the book into words--it is a story set in Africa of a man's obsession with discovering another Nile, but it is so much more than that--it deals with the gentle slope into crazy, with politics and corruption, with the inner workings and desires of man.
I just read the Da Vinci Code in a couple of full reading days (have I mentioned I am unemployed?). This was right before I began JG Ballard. The writing is horrible, but it was entertaining, I guess. I think I was doing that thing where you have something you want to eat for some reason but it doesn't taste that good, so you just swallow it whole.
The Royal Ghosts is a collection of short stories by Samrat Upadhyay. I love good short stories. That is why I also constantly leaf through and re-read Telling Stories--An Anthology for Writers, collected by Joyce Carol Oates. There is something for everyone in there.
Veggie Revolution by Sally Kneidel, Ph.D. I like to read these books about the meat industry every once in awhile because if I don't, I forget about the disdusting reality and start enjoying my meat too much.
The Measure of Reality--Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600, by Alfred W. Crosby. It discusses the shift from a qualitative view of the world to quantitative and how it shaped science, math, business practices, and even art and music. I have only read about 30 pages of this one so far--I really need to be in the mood to concentrate on every word.
I am reading another one--but it is upstairs on the bed table, and I can't remember what it is since I got drunk on Friday night and camped all weekend.
I took some notes on other books, and look forward to getting through these so I can start some more!
I won't read all of the Veggie Revolution--just enough to get me riled up.