I’ve just finished I Feel Bad About My Neck. There is a fine chapter on our necks, and a particularly fine chapter on reading. She describes the satiety of finishing a good book, and the sense of elation and wonder that makes you put a book down to absorb a a great passage. I remembered feeling that way when I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I turned Nora Ephron’s page and found that Kavalier and Clay was the very book she had just finished and was rhapsodizing on.
It’s made me pine for a great book. The majority of what I read is crap: entirely my own fault. I intend to read good fiction, but I just never do, because frankly it seems like a waste of time when I could be reading non-fiction instead. Non-fiction, which is more honorable because it’s less fun. Oh. And US Magazine.
Okay. Only those who have read Kavalier and Clay can vote: what is another non-fiction book I can read that is as entertaining and memorable and still educational as that one? One that makes me sad it’s over and makes we wish the characters were truly alive?
I swear I’ll read it. Hey, I’ve seen Spinal Tap and Office Space so far. I may have to give up on TiVO and rent Chinatown and Godfather 2. But better yet, tell me about a really good book.
14 responses to “In Which We Search for a Good Book”
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Isaac’s Storm by Eric Larsen. Devil in the White City by Eric Larsen. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Ghost Soldiers (author’s name escapes me, about the rescue of American POWs from prison camps in the Phillipines in WWII). The autobiography of Agatha Christie. The autobiography of Rumer Godden. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
Did I say non-fiction? Crap! Yes I did. I meant fiction.
I really liked Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Laughed, cried, etc.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami are the best books I’ve read in the past few years.I am about to start Kavalier & Clay. I can’t wait, as I’ve wanted to read it for a while but hadn’t had the chance.
Manhattan Nocturne and The Havana Room by Colin Harrison. A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. My perennial favorite, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Currently reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Good but not life altering. Carl Hiassen’s best, imho, were Skin Tight and Native Tongue. Oh! For nonfiction, can’t believe I forgot John Hockenberry’s Moving Violations.
History of Love by Nicole Kraus. It’s not the same kind of epic tale, but I was surprisingly affected by it. My favorite book of all time is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, but it’s slightly more tongue in cheek.
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund (my favorite!)
Exxxcellent. Now to Amazon. Thanks.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321/sr=8-1/qid=1170641057/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4191097-7446321?ie=UTF8&s=booksThere's a student edition available too, that should make you feel better.Oh, and I really, really enjoyed The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Please allow me to introduce you to my two favorite authors:Somerset MaughamGraham GreeneAnything by either is fantastic and suprisingly relevent even though both wrote in the earlier part of the 1900’s, but I recommend Of Human Bondage by S.Maugham and End of the Affair by G.Greene.
Please allow me to introduce you to my two favorite authors:Somerset MaughamGraham GreeneAnything by either is fantastic and suprisingly relevent even though both wrote in the earlier part of the 1900’s, but I recommend Of Human Bondage by S.Maugham and End of the Affair by G.Greene.
uh, oops. lo siento.ma’af.
For one of the funniest, quick non-sensical reads you’ll have in a while, I strongly recommend “E” by Matt Beaumont. Is there honor in humor? I say yes. Seriously, though, I haven’t laughed out loud reading a book like I did with this one. And I’m voting purely because I’ve had Kavalier & Clay on my bookshelf for about 2 years already and I intend on reading it, well, sometime this summer.Maybe.
Anddddddd the Christmas Amazon Coupon goessss tooooo:Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Mainly because the Pulitzer committee agreed with Carrie. Speaking of other novels that won the Pulitzer, Carrie and O, Kavalier & Clay is sitting on your shelf? That’s just wrong.