Back from the library

[likethebeer]

With all of the work excitement lately, I forgot I had been on a reading jag. Didn't finish Ibid, returned it (b/c it was a 2-week return) and it's gone now. Oh well--I can pick it up later.

I got _The Emporer of Ocean Park_, by Stephen L. Carter, _Fingersmith_, by Sarah Waters (her other books were well-reviewed by the NYT book review, but I can't help but think of "fingering"), and _The Roman_, by Mika Waltari. The last 2 are, once again, historical fiction. I'm becoming a hack, I suppose.

Some things I observed about myself in the library as I looked over the titles:

Hate romance, or anything that smacks of it. When the first sentence of the front book flap reads, "Amy (or whoever) wanted to live wild and free and she was desirous" (or some such... and they through in the struggles against her father, too), I'm gonna put that sucker away.

West/southwest United States--nope, don't like it. Covers with buttes will make me look away. THis goes for pure-out westerns, stories about Native Americans, modern stories of the west... all of it.

I'm still scarred by anything that smacks of "high school reading list." We're supposed to discover a love of reading these classics, aren't we?

I naively think every time I go that they'll have some collection by Borges. It could happen. Same thing w/the next installment in the Baroque cycle by Stephenson. Or the latest novels by Dennis McFarland.

Solyshnetzin (SP!) scares me. [Although I may pick up _August 1914_ one of these days).

How does one get a particular translation of a book? The only _Don Quixote_ they have is a 1970 translation. Oh, well I suppose I could look for it on the LinkCAT and check out the publication date. Ok, then.

Comments

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I went into Electrical Engineering because of Solzhenitzen's First Circle.

If we keep spelling it different ways, we'll finally get it right.

I've got Borges in my own personal library. I'll read a story or two whenever I want to see how it's done by a genius.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Why did First Circle make you go into Electrical Engineering?

Mda has 1 Borges book of short stories (the one with the Library of Babel), that's how I discovered him. It's another prejudice of mine--I'm not naturally excited about anything having to do w/Latin America. Isabel Allende, Marquez... even Paul Bowles (who I had to read in school)--nope. Can't get into it. I don't know why. So I didn't know what I was going to find when I opened up Borges.

Yeah, he was a genius. Unbelievable.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

It's all about electrical engineers. Well, voice experts, especially. The characters are political prisoners (electronics experts, linguists, philosophers) who were gathered to develop a quality, untappable, scrambled personal telephone for Stalin.

Re: Marquez. I read 100 Years of Solitude last year, and I just found it sadder and sadder. I like the dream-like reality, though. But I feel like the whole thing was a metaphor, and I didn't get it. Maybe it was about Columbia? Maybe it was about time, or memory? I dunno.

I discovered Borges through a girlfriend. She lent Labyrinths to me. I now have my own copy. I found his style wordy and obscure. I'm glad I kept reading.

[eldil.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're such a geek, searching for a particular translation! :) I wish I bothered to do such things.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. It's like learning (learning facts, I'd hope) and entertainment in one!

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

The last time I went off on books, someone reminded me of the new one. Yeah, I like learning. I never knew the Napoleanic wars went into Portugal and Spain until I read_Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell_, and that's total fantasy.

[em-porium.livejournal.com]

I spent one summer trying to read all of the "classics" that we didn't read in high school. I had some notion that I was behind on some of my reading for college.

Yeah...that was probably some of the most boring reading that I ever did. Of course, it was great literature and all, but sometimes...