What BOOK are you reading right now?

Mockingbird in the Rye by Harper Salinger.

I read Gunther Grass' My Century every time I go to the bathroom.

It's the history of Germany in the XX Century in 100 short vignettes . One per year. Some are good, some are great. Today I read 1964.

Somewhere in my morass of books I have one by Gunther Grass. Didn't read it then, would be more interested now.

thanks for the reminder.

I've been listening to "The Hours" audio book. Wow! I'm really fascinated with how this author toys with time. He'll say something like "she decides to bake a cake", then describe some events that the reader must assume are happening, then repeat "she decides to bake a cake", which creates a sense that the events were just quick mental ideas or that the events actually take place later. At first, I was slightly confused about the year/decade where the story was taking place. Then, I realized that there are actually three different stories. Stories within stories. It's great! I think the book is very well written!

I haven't placed another audio book on 'reserve', so when I return "The Hours" to the library, I'll browse the shelves to see what's next.....

I've just finished reading The War Of The End Of The World by Mario Vargas Llosa, a long epic novel set in 19th century Brazil. It is quite remarkable. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind reading about bloodshed--there is a lot of fighting and some torture, but so well described. I think it is one of the best Latin American novels I've ever read, certainly better than anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--it portrays many characters over a sweep of time and place with total fascination.

Moved on to AS I LAY DYING by Faulkner, the one critically esteemed novel of his that I've never read. So far so very good. It is very passionately written, a series of interior monologues by different members of the Bundren family, whose mother, Addie, is dying and wants to be buried near her family in Faulkner's mythical town of Jefferson, Miss. To me Faulkner is the greatest of all American novelists so this book is a real treat.

"Salt: A World History." Something besides a textbook for the first time since Xmas...

Are you in school, patiodog? I'd assumed you were a U-Dub employee...

I just picked up a copy of DeLillo's latest, Cosmopolis. Looking forward to reading it!

I read the first 50 pages of COSMOPOLIS in the bookstore to see if it could possibly be as weak as the reviewers are saying. I like DeLillo, so I am predisposed to like it. Alas, they are all right...a mess.

With great relief I have given up on all "difficult" books for the moment and resumed reading PICKWICK PAPERS by Dickens...pure pleasure. I find that the war is making me anxious and I need to read something funny and escapist just now.

Crete on the Half Shell. I'm enjoying it immensely (esp. since I've met Algis). I'm still working through A Different Angle - Fly Fishing Stories by Woman as my subway reading. Next subway book is South Wind Through the Kitchen - The Best of Elizabeth David. I'm really enjoying food writing lately. Trying to figure out why so many food writers are just such great descriptive writers. Maybe it's something to do with an artist being an artist.

Rats, Lice and Historyby Hans Zinsser is still on the stack of 'to-be-read'. As interesting as it seems, I don't think it's suiting my current mood.

Beth, probably the best food writer of all time is M.F.K. Fisher who wrote THE ART OF EATING and WITH BOLD KNIFE AND FORK...a wonderful writer who must have also been a considerable human being too. Check out any of her books for a rich display of sensuous English prose. She is even better than your Elizabeth David!!!

Larry, I worked my way through 4 or 5 M.F.K. Fisher books about 20 years ago. I was lucky enough to find them all at Goodwill for less than a dollar apiece. It was a great score.

Leaving Cheyenne - Larry McMurtry

I love love love Larry McMurtry

I would like to go to Archer City and sneeze my way through McMurtry's collection. Recently read "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" and it enjoyed it a lot. Lots of underlining, notes.

Tartarin, I also read "Walter Banjamin" not so long ago. And loved it, too. I'd also love to visit his store in Archer City some time.

You might also like "In a Narrow Grave", an earlier set of personal essays by McMurtry...

I kept an article on that store for quite a while...it seemed like a dream project...

osso (and interested others): Check out this link to an article on McMurtry's store, Booked Up

http://www.bookmagazine.com/archive/issue11/shopwatch.shtml

We should meet there -- he's quite friendly, if dusty. (I'll be wearing a bandanna over the lower half of my face!)