Reading, reading, reading, what have I been reading? Seems like I have been reading a lot but not much that is interesting or notable enough to relate unless anyone wants to know about designing groupware or the differences in design between desktop applications and web applications.
Books I have been reading:
- I continue with If Not, Winter and am awed and amazed at the beauty of Sappho’s writing. I want to gulp but limit myself to ten or twenty pages at a time.
- I also continue reading Hermione Lee’s Edith Wharton biography. I have been reading of the salacious details of Wharton’s affair with Morton Fullerton. I don’t think Wharton ever had much sex with her husband and when she did it was unsatisfying. But with Fullerton she sounds like she had quite the voracious appetite. Her prose is so controlled and her image so upper-class proper that it is hard to imagine her as a passionate lover. But there you go.
- Just finished reading The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle. Castle is an English professor at Stanford. The book has several personal essays along with a not quite book-length memoir which explains the addition of the essays. I’ll very likely be writing more about this tomorrow after it has had a chance to settle a bit.
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie continues to charm and delight. If you’ve read the book, the Sea of Stories is being poisoned and Haroun is now gathered with the Gupees to hear from those in charge about what is going on. And then there is the revelation of the spy!
I’ve got my copy of Vertigo by W.G. Sebald from the library for the upcoming Slaves discussion at the end of the month. I will probably start reading it tomorrow so I have time to read slowly and think and appreciate the greatness that is Sebald. All are welcome to join in the reading and discussion with the Slaves.
Next week is my last week of class for the school quarter and then I get a two-week break before the spring quarter starts. Not enough time for much of a reading binge except on the airplane ride to and from visiting my parents. But I am greatly looking forward to having, at least for a short while, free time in the evening to fill as I choose. Spring is in the air and I am hoping some of that time will be filled outdoors walking and biking. Dare I hope?
Ah- I know that feeling!
When you want to make some tea, sit down and just gulp the whole book at once but you say to yourself “no, only 30 pages at a time!” just so you can have more hours with that book…
I will definitely add If Not, Winter to my list
It’s the opposite for me. When I’m reading something I love, I don’t want to do anything else – even if it means closing the cover sooner than I thought. I wish I could find a copy of Vertigo. Can you believe my library does not have one copy in any branch? I’ll still be interested in reading everyone’s thoughts, though.
Good for you limiting your reading for Sappho. It is so hard for me to do that. I’ve been doing pretty well limiting myself as I read my Steinbeck novel, but I’ve read it before so I know how it ends….
I’m so thrilled that you continue to love the Sappho. And I know what you mean about the Morton Fullerton part of the Wharton bio! Wharton’s whole upbringing & treatment around sex made me so angry on her behalf – when she was terrified & asked her mother what to expect before her wedding night, & her mother shamed her? It’s terrible. And then Fullerton was such a douchebag. At least she found passion in life, I suppose, sexual and otherwise.
That’s a really nice selection of books there. You did make me laugh about Edith Wharton – still waters run deep!!
I can’t wait for spring! It’s been unusually rainy here this year and although I love it, I’m definitely ready for some warm weather and flowers!
You’re definitely making me want to read the Wharton bio! I just got my copy of Sebald, and I’m looking forward to that. It should be an interesting discussion. Just flipping through the book I saw it looked similar to Rings of Saturn, which I loved, so that’s a good sign.
I had to order a copy of Vertigo as no libraries had it in town! I should start now, too! I love biographies, but don’t they sometimes make you blush a little–in a way I think Wharton had to know all the salacious stuff in order to write about passion the way she did (even if it was totally repressed passion!).