What BOOK are you reading right now?

I"ve been reading Lanark, and I must say, it is a strange book. HCE???

For those of you who are interested, it starts out with book 3, then has a prologue, then books, 1, 2, and 4. It appears to be about hell and reminds me a little of C.S. Lewis's book, The Great Divorce.

I'm not sure if I love this story, HCE. Maybe it is a "guy's" book? I have to tell you, I'm more of a Love in the Time of Cholera sort of reader, but I will bumble through, at least for a while. It does keep my attention.

I was going to post two days ago that I was starting Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions, but now I've sailed through it and have been on a wonderful journey, met several interesting people and now I'm on my way to a friend's house to thrust the book into her hands while saying "Read this next."

Joe

Piffka -- yes, that sounds like a book HCE would certainly appreciate. BTW, he's Beedlesquoink now on A2K.

Hello Joe Nation, that sounds like high praise! It is so satisfying to find a book like that.

Merry Andrew -- Oh yes, he recommended it. Book 1, I can report, has returned to a level of reality more easily understood, though Glasgow appears as dreary in book form as ever I thought in real life.

Piffka... hang in there... it's a roller coaster. I don't know if you could reduce the book to "it's about" anything. Unless life itself. I promise, it will reward your patience.

Grey seems like a very odd duck. I've read a handful of his books and would defy anyone to categorize him. I met someone who encountered him at a writer's conference who told me, "The man is even stranger than his books.."

Yes Merry Andrew, my kind of writer. Brave to a fault I would suggest.

Just finishing up Tuesdays With Morrie
it is definetely a keeper!!
And - also reading
The Fourth Hand, (Irving)
AND just finished The Imaginary Girlfriend (also Irving)
funny
Next on the list is C S Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
anyone read this one???

I only read Lion babs, didn't get to Magician's. Are you going to read the entire series?

Beedlesquoink -- I am hanging in there, thanks. I hope you know that I value your advice highly! The man being even stranger than his books??? Wow. Woww. Wowwwww! I wonder if he still lives in Scotland? He must.


Babs -- I know I read that book to my kids, but can barely remember what it was about. I do like C.S.Lewis though, he's another odd duck.

Its part of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was the 6th book in the series, but chronologically the first. Some have recommended reading it first because of that, but Narnia-lovers say it is better to read them in the order Lewis wrote them, because that is how he intended them to be read.

Love In The Time of Cholera by gabriel garcia marquez...a fun read, but not a particularly deep or distinguished novel. Where marquez gets his exalted reputation is a mystery to me--there are several much more talented latin American novelists than him floating around.

On Love in the Time of Cholera: I read it because it looked interesting and I had of course heard of it. I have a long time interest in latin america, although I have read about it in bits and pieces over decades. I have only travelled to Mexico and Guatemala, both quite a while ago.

In part because I liked being in Mexico and Guatemala the six or seven times I was in one or the other, I felt as I walked into the first pages of the book as if I was transported to the exact place the story was occurring. The descriptions setting the scenes melded with his words about what was happening, what people were thinking, almost - to me - in swirls of words, at the pace of the heat and the breezes.

I have no idea why the book is reputed in the literary world. I liked it because it took me there.

Yes, dear Larry - even at my age, or perhaps due to my
age - and never really having the opportunity for being a
child when I was a child - I DO plan on reading the
entire series, and anything/everything else written by
C S Lewis as well. When I get into a certain writer, I
tend to enjoy reading everything they ever wrote. It all
began way back when I was about 8 or so, reading every
novel Pearl Buck ever wrote. I loved her stories. Since then,
when I find a writer who I thoroughly enjoy (John Irving, for
example) I go thru their every book & am not satiated till
I've read every single novel, memoir, biography etc etc.
And, alas, even then, sometimes I so wish that they would
come back to life, to write just a few more.

I have read all by John Irving as well, I do the same thing. I am determined to discover all by Jerome Klapka Jerome at the moment. Reading THree Men on a Bummel, moving on to the Diary of a Pilgrimage. Love the dry British humour.

babs - The Screwtape Letters is probably mentioned as much as the Narnia books when I read about Lewis. Haven't read it yet myself.

Ossobuco,
On Love In The Time Of Cholera - is this ABOUT Latin
America - or set in Latin America? I ADORE Mexico, at
least those parts of it I had the pleasure to visit.
Oh, the life, the pace, the sense of lightheartedness, the
attitude of "don't worry - be happy" that one feels simply
upon entering the airport at Mexico City or anywhere else,
for that matter - is so pleasant. The little courtesies!!
*The ONLY thing that I did not especially enjoy about
Mexico is those few persons who, like in America, are
very racially predjudiced.... and it IS quite a unique,
enlightening & very educational experience to be on the
other side of that predjudice.
*I always enjoy reading about the Far East as well as
Latin America - and Italy, though I must confess to
having absolutely no interest in Spain, Portugal,
or the majority of South America, except for Chile.
Chile, mainly due to the fact that my youngest
daughter is married to a man who is from Chile, tho
he tells me, there is NOTHING THERE, why would you
want to go there. He just doesn't understand, there
are mountains there and unusual animals & different
culture, not to mention opposite seasons.
Oooops, running off the beam here.

dagmaraka - thanks for mentioning Jerome - his books look interesting. I had never heard the name before.

You know Larry, I have heard of The Screwtape Letters
and something deep, deep inside is telling me that it sounds
so very familiar. One of the really wondrous experiences
about being older is that I can read a book that I read
before and it's a totally new experience.

amazon

"Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.

Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit.

The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings."

Dear me, now here I am, confused and not at all
quite sure what to do about the Chronicles of Narnia.
I THOUGHT that I would begin with The Magician's
Nephew .... but on the other hand - if they were
written in a certain order - well then, perhaps I
should stick to the order. But then, this WAS the
first book of the series to be written, right?
Oh dear, dear, dear, what am I to do.... start out
with number 1, just because it says number 1 - or
begin with the originally first book of the series that
he wrote even though it is NOT number 1.
OK - NOW I WANT EVERYONE TO GIVE ME YOUR
OPINION ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS
DILEMMA I SEEM TO HAVE PUT MYSELF IN HERE!
SHALL I READ #1 JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT BEING
#1, OR READ THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SERIES
ACTUALLY WRITTEN????????????????HELP??!!!

Dear me, now here I am, confused and not at all
quite sure what to do about the Chronicles of Narnia.
I THOUGHT that I would begin with The Magician's
Nephew .... but on the other hand - i f they were
written in a certain order - well then, perhaps I
should stick to the order. But then, this WAS the
first book of the series to be written, right?
Oh dear, dear, dear, what am I to do.... start out
with number 1, just because it says number 1 - or
begin with the originally first book of the series that
he wrote even though it is NOT number 1.
OK - NOW I WANT EVERYONE TO GIVE ME YOUR
OPINION ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS
DILEMMA I SEEM TO HAVE PUT MYSELF IN HERE!
SHALL I READ #1 JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT BEING
#1, OR READ THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SERIES
ACTUALLY WRITTEN????????????????HELP??!!!