I just got a book in the mail yesterday and two books from the library today so it seems like a good evening to be generally chatty. Not that I ever need an excuse to chat about books!
First, book in the mail. Pitch Dark by Renata Adler is my NYRB Classics subscription book for March and it looks fantastic. “Adler’s follow-up to her prizewinning novel Speedboat, is a book of questions. It is also a book of false starts, red herrings, misunderstandings, and all-too-fleeting revelations.” Affairs, complications, contradictions, Connecticut, New York City, Ireland. I have a feeling I am going to love this one. But first I need to read February’s NYRB book, An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, an account of the two months he spent in Armenia. But before I can read that, I have to finish January’s book, Testing the Current by William McPherson. I am two-thirds of the way done with this wonderful novel which I have been reading slowly not just because it demands to be read slowly but because I have been enjoying it so much. I suspect I will finish it this weekend or early next week.
From the library today I brought home Stet by Diana Athill. It is a memoir about her nearly fifty years working as an editor. During that time she worked with such luminaries as V.S Naipaul, Philip Roth, and Norman Mailer. It is the next Slaves group read. Discussion is set for March 31st and all are welcome to read and join in. There is still time!
The other library book is The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. It’s about how to deal with economic instability, uncertain weather due to climate change, and other issues from a gardening frame of reference. It looks like she even has information on how to garden if you have health issues. I’m not sure where I learned about this book but it looked interesting enough that I thought I would check it out.
Oh, not that long ago I received in the mail a review copy from Penguin of Marcel Proust: The Collected Poems. I had no idea Proust even wrote poetry! The book is a dual-language edition so the French is on one page and the English translation on the other. I can’t read French so that means nothing to me, but for those who do I am sure it is awesome. I’ve only read a few poems so far and I can say Proust’s poetry is nothing like his prose. It’s not bad, just really different. At least that is my initial assessment. I’ll get back to you after I have read more.
I am also reading another poetry book, this one I started a month or so ago, Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds. The book is about the end of her marriage of 32 years. I didn’t think I would like the book because it is so personal, but so far it is quite good. She recently won the TS Eliot Poetry Prize for the book, making her the first American woman to win the prize. So I shouldn’t be surprised that it is turning out to be a good collection.
I am almost done with The Letters of Horace Walpole, volume one. I hope to finish the volume by tomorrow or Monday. I am enjoying them very much but I am ready to be done with Horace. He is quite the lively correspondent though. The period the letters cover includes the time of the Scottish Jacobite uprising and Walpole’s panic when the rumors of the uprising began to fly is rather amusing. I suppose I would have been worried too but since I have the luxury of history on my side I can laugh and think him silly.
Also on the go is How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics by Katherine Hayles. It is a really fascinating book that needs close attention but so far is well worth it.
I hope to get back to Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector very soon. It got set aside in a flurry of other books. Perhaps I will pick it up this weekend.
My Botany for Gardeners book has temporarily been set aside, but oh, it is excellent!
There are a couple books I know I will be starting soon. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin is the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Season three apparently starts airing later this month and Bookman keeps pestering me to get the book read because he knows I won’t watch the TV show until I have read the book.
I might not get to it until April, but the next book in my science by women project is going to be Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions by Lisa Randall. I’m hoping one of the mysteries she unravels is how I can read more books! Or maybe she will tell me how to contact the various me’s on different timelines in different dimensions who may have read different books and we can somehow do a Vulcan mind meld and share our reading experiences. Wouldn’t that be something?
I could go on chatting all night but Bookman and the cats are asking for some attention. Bookman even made oatmeal raisin cookies to tempt me!
At least a dozen books. How do you keep them straight? Were it not for Bookman’s cookies, you’d soon be blind.
I counted 13 books on the go or about to be. To quote Oor Wullie (cartoon character in Scotland’s Sunday Post since 1930s): Jings! Crivvens! Help Ma Boab! Sorry about that but that is an incredible range of books you are reading. I’m reading two short books in tandem, M Finley’s Aspects Of Antiquity which are very readable essays about Cretans, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. Also a book of travel journalism by the Welsh writer Jim Perrin- Travels With the Flea. The Flea is Perrins’ dog who in the longest and best essay travels with Perrin across Wales. Am enjoying both books a lot – but what to read next?
Ian, and I realized after I posted that I left one off! Between Gardens, a book of letters I started reading last weekend. Jings and Crivvens! I like that
13 on the go or about to be, that’s not so many, is it? I have one or two of Finley’s books on my shelf that I keep meaning to get to as part of my slow read through the Greek tragedies, not Aspects of Antiquity though. Travels With the Flea sounds like fun. It sounds like a novel might be on order for your next read to mix it up a little 
Just now I seem unable to tackle long books but keen to keep reading. In that mood short stories are just the thing and before me I have Collected Stories of William Trevor which will keep me going with excellent fiction. The Vasily Grossman sounds very interesting. His Life And Fate was dramatised on Radio 4 either last year or the year before and I must get around to reading that.
Ian, short stories and essays too are always great when you want to read something that isn’t long. Of course there are also novellas too, so many excellent ones to choose from. I’ve not read Grossman before so I am really looking forward to the book.
Richard, oh it’s easy to keep them all straight actually. They are all very different and I read them in different locations and at different times. And Bookman’s cookies give me good brain fuel
I read like you do, Stephanie, many books at once. I’ve noticed that while I’m reading, I can mentally bookmark all of the books, remembering plot, characters, etc., even if I lay the book aside for weeks or months. But shortly after I finish a book, I’m often hard pressed to remember much at all. I don’t know what that says about me. I don’t think it’s the fault of the books I read because I read widely, like you do. Maybe it’s my selective memory – I only remember things I think I need to.
Joan, I make those mental bookmarks too and they also can last for weeks or months. Depending on the book, I can usually remember it for at least a week or two before it starts to fade. Some few books I remember well for a long time but most the details start to get fuzzy a week or two after I finish it. Maybe we have lots of RAM but our hard drives for long term storage are limited
I have tried reading that mAny books at once, but am not up to the task. One of my goals for this year was to read one book at a time. While I Was reading more books this way, my resolve only lasted until mid Feb and I’m back to three or so in process — in addition to two I’ve been listening to on Audible.
Anne Camille, five books at a time is a good number. I used to try and limit myself to three at a time but I started feeling anxious after awhile so now I just read as many as I want and not worry about it
I can only read one fiction book at a time, occasionally I’ll read a non-fiction on the side. It would feel too much like cheating on the first book if I were to read another at the same time.
Lori, I gave up book monogamy long ago!
I had two of Nick Hornby’s collections of essays in the post this morning and I would tell you which ones they were, but I am too lazy to run downstairs and check out the titles. There is something so exciting about hearing those parcels drop through the letter box. Every day can be a birthday when you have a book ordering fettish.
Alex, oh, Nick Hornby essays in the mail! What fun! I do love coming home from work and finding a book on my porch. It makes a bad day better and a good day great.
That’s how I’ve read for a long time, so I enjoyed all your bookchat. (Though I’m emerging from a very quiet spell, which hasn’t happened for ages.) I’m in the same position with the Martin books, but I do find them hard to work in because they’re harder to lug around than most! (But the series is a powerful motivator, as are the misters.)
buried, so glad there is another lots of books always on the go person out there! Those Martin books are rather chunky. Thank goodness they read pretty fast. Yup, the series and the mister is a big motivator
A trans-multiverse mind meld with the other Stefanies?! That would be awesome.
Lokesh, yup, a trans-multiverse mind meld. I think it would be pretty awesome too but I am not sure the multiverse is ready for it
I am reading today and that makes me excited – I have not had reading time for qite a while
Sheila, yay for reading time!
Stefanie, this is such an amazing amount of great, eclectic reading you are doing. I envy you. Lately I have been so distracted with things that I have barely been able to finish ONE book in the past two weeks or so.
Happy reading to you!
Cipriano, you have had much to distract you of late so it is no wonder reading has been hard. I hope you are doing ok. The books will be there waiting for you when you are ready.
I love your book chatty posts because I can relate to them so well!
I am in the same boat as you with the Renata Adler book (I think there was just recently an article about her in Bookforum–did you read/see it? Must go grab the library copy of it now to read it for real–rather than just browse through the pages). I am about halfway through Testing the Current and love it. It is not a book that you can pick up and read a page or two of I have decided so I am spending most of my reading time with it (it is definitely a slow going…but in a good way…book) and hope to maybe finish by the end of the week. I have also been trying to catch up with my novella reading (just one more to go) before the next set arrives. Of course your other books sound good, too. Maybe since I am doing better reading nature books, science will be next. Hmm….
Danielle, I am so behind on reading Bookforum I haven’t even gotten to the one with the Clarice Lispector article in it yet! I did spend a pleasant hour and a half reading Testing the Current on the weekend and it does indeed read better in longer chunks than I had been devoting to it which now makes me reluctant to read it in short bursts before bed. I think there might be a big binge on it in order this coming weekend and we’ll see how close I can get to finishing it. As much I am enjoying it the other NYRBs are clamoring!
I am green with envy over the lovely subscriptions that you and Danielle both have. I want books arriving regularly in the mail!! (Mr Litlove would say I already do, but what does he know?) I have a glut of review copies at the moment, all good books I want to read, and they are having to be balanced alongside a number of book club/challenge books. I’m not complaining! They all look great. I could just do with another pair of eyes sometimes. Do hope Stet is good – it has a nice premise, just got fingers crossed that it will fulfill it!
Litlove, oh but we have our march books and haven’t even finished the January one yet! It is nice getting a book in the mail though on a regular basis without actually having to do anything, it just appears like magic
I hope Stet is good too, it looks like fun! Have fun getting through your own glut of books!
I want to do the vulcan mind thing too, if you get it figured out, please let me know!!! I love that idea that in alternate worlds our other selves are reading some of the books we want to get to but can’t!
I enjoyed reading your list of books you are reading/wanting to read. I have heard so much about Stag’s Leap, and it’s on my list of books to get as soon as I can find it. I didn’t know she was the first American woman to win the TS Eliot prize though. I have added The Resilient Gardener to the same list, and Stet.
Stet looks fun, and interesting (I’m a writer).
Enjoy your books, Stefanie! I hope you get to them all here…oh, Storm of Swords – it was good – whew, that’s one on your list I’ve read already! I’m on Book 4 now.
Susan, wouldn’t that be awesome? If I learn how to do the mind meld I’ll be sure to share the secret at the risk of all us readers destabilizing the multi-verses
Stag’s Leap is beautiful, you will very likely enjoy it. You might want to reconsider The Resilient Gardener though, it has turned out to be not so much about gardening as about preparing for disaster scenarios. I just started Storm of Swords yesterday, so far so good!
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