What BOOK are you reading right now?

I just downloaded the Audible version of the book and I'll start listening to it tomorrow at work.

I just ran across this on Mario Vargas Llosa, and others, by Alma Guillermoprieto more than fifteen years ago:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1994/may/26/the-bitter-education-of-vargas-llosa/

On reflection, I'm not quite clear on what baffles you: Is it my choice of reading matter, or the authors' choice of title?

finished listening to The Passage, really liked it, curious to see how it progresses from here

read The Willows in Winter by William Horwood, one of four sequels to the Wind in the Willows he's written,

currently re-reading Watership Down and listening to Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games series

I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday and I was contemplating buying a new copy of Watership Down as I no longer have my old paperback copy. One of the only books I have ever reread 4 times.

I ended up buying a paperback edition of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.

I loved Watership Down, but have never reread it.
I did read a great review of the New York Trilogy, Tsar. I forget where. Will be interested in your take on it.

A review of Thomas McGuane's new book, Driving on the Rim - I bet I'd like it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/books/review/Meloy-t.html

being the ADD reader that i am, i started another book last night
To Ruhleben – And Back

To Ruhleben – And Back is Geoffrey Pyke's memoir of his experiences in the Ruhleben P.O.W. Camp. While at school at Cambridge University, Pyke convinced the editor of the London Daily Chronicle to make him the paper's correspondent in Berlin during World War I. Pyke was captured and sent to Ruhleben with about 4,000 other foreign prisoners. In 1915, after a year in Ruhleben, Pyke escaped into the Netherlands, and from there back to the United Kingdom. Pyke's experiences and memoir brought him minor fame at the time, but were soon forgotten.

To Ruhleben – And Back has recently been republished, for the first time since 1916, by McSweeney's Collins Library imprint.

pretty interesting read so far, i had it sitting on my shelf for a few years, bought when i was collecting everything i could get from McSweeney's (or as near as i could, their output is pretty large)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McSweeney%27s

if you're not familiar with McSweeney's, you should check them out, their publications are as notable for their presentations as content

as for the author of To Ruhleben – And Back, his bio is a fun read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Pyke

more info on the Ruhleben camp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhleben_P.O.W._Camp

I'm going to add that to my list.

The description reminds me of two favorites,
Eric Newby's Love and War in the Appenines
http://www.amazon.com/Love-War-Apennines-Travel-Literature/dp/1741795273/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288039156&sr=1-1

and Primo Levi's The Reawakening
(his long road to home after leaving Auschwitz, very engaging though it might not sound like it)
http://www.amazon.com/Reawakening-Primo-Levi/dp/0684826356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288039215&sr=1-1

Finally reading something more than the Guardian (lots of work travel at the moment)

Pig City - Andrew Stafford
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Books/Pig-City-From-the-Saints-to-Savage-Garden/2004/11/26/1101219733560.html

Freakonomics - Steven Levitt

Like Water For Elements - Sara Gruen

Art into Pop - Simon Frith

Spice : the history of a temptation - Jack Turner

I've just realised I read lots of books at the same time so it's like reading a big slow newspaper.

Didn't mention the two Steve Krug books are never far from my right hand at the moment

Just finished "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." It was pretty good. Some definite "wow" spots, kind of lost coherence towards the end.

Pretty much as soon as Claude appeared I figured out it was doing some sort of Hamlet thing (evil uncle named Claude got gears turning, then I thought but what was Hamlet's mom's name? It didn't start with a "T," like "Trudy" in the book... oh, GERTRUDE! Ok yeah.) So that made the ending pretty predictable, though of course it differed in particulars and there was still some possibility that he'd take it in a different direction.

Some very, very good writing about dogs though. I don't recall seeing the phrase "his/her pelt contracted" before (about touching an agitated dog), it's so perfect that I won't be able to think of it any other way from now on. Lots of small moments like that. The writer clearly GETS dogs.

sozobe, your reaction to that book mirrored mine. I read it avidly for 3/4 of the way through, then it seemed to change and become directed toward a chosen ending. It was two different books. I agree with you that he is a good writer, and the stuff about dog training was fascinating. "Shared gaze" has become part of my vocabulary when I didn't even know dogs could do that until I read this book.

Exactly, 3/4 of the way is just about when I thought it started to lose steam too. I agree about the "shared gaze," as well.

The book definitely made me want to have a dog again.

What did you think of the ending, with the dogs going off on their own? I think it was supposed to be happy/ uplifting, but it didn't strike me as such. I just thought they were all going to get cold and starving and miserable and miss their nice warm dry kennel and regular brushings. Especially those poor little pups.

The ending was very odd and left me unsatisfied. It was as if he had changed from an intelligent, practical, and pragmatic storyteller into some sort of mystic. I had the feeling he didn't know how to bring the book to an end and grabbed a notion out of the air.

LOL, sozobe...I just read your signature. Love it! (Kudos to hingehead)

Ex-ACTLY. I was thinking just that.

There were wafts of mysticism throughout but the ending just kind of gave itself over to it.

The guy evidently was writing the book for a decade, I can see that he just didn't quite know how to wrap up. He had the Hamlet template of course but wanted to take something to the next level, and it didn't work. Are the dogs supposed to have evolved into some sort of super-race, with Essay and Forte at the helm? Just kind of came out of left field, felt tacked-on rather than organic.

I agree with both you and Kara on the ending, but it wasn't enough of a 'flaw' to make me hate the book as it did some reviewers on Amazon. Reading some of those comments, I remember thinking I'm glad I finished the book first, since there were lots of spoilers revealed in the review discussions. As I recall, at the time (it's been a few years), it was running about 50/50 loved it/hated it (always because of the ending).

Oh really? I hadn't read any reviews either, except the ones on the back of the book. I thought it was more popular than that. Maybe I'll see what people said.

(As an aside, I love that this guy published his first book at age 48! I still harbor some vague ambitions and gives me hope as I push 40.)

Just as I was about to get to the halfway point of my audiobook of The Sparrow I go and lose my MP3 player again. I believe it must have fell out of my pocket sometime during or after the movie tonight or when I went into the Duane Reade to get a sandwich and something to drink.

Geez, tsar. I can well imagine.

Sending you a good blanket .