Thursday, June 07, 2007

Summer Reading

Summer Reading

Ten years ago, after a heart attack, I had a lot of reading time. I read several volumes each of Anne Tyler, Updyke and Vonnegut, along with several others.

This year, in the last few weeks, I seem to have fallen into another pattern of twentieth century American authors: C. S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Mickey Spillane, so far. It’s great fun to read Lewis’, “Screwtape Letters” back to back with Twain’s “Letters from the Earth.” Spillane...my God, how could you not love a book, “The Killing Man”, whose first paragraph contains,
“I could smell the rain. It was the kind that hung above the orderly piles of concrete until it was soaked with dust and debris and when it came down it wasn’t rain at all, but the sweat of the city.”

And Gatsby...I have to read it every twenty years, just to be reminded that style need never get in the way of story. The Hemingway was, “The Sun also Rises,” a story so resonant with today’s “news.” Was there ever a more perfect Lady Brett Ashley than Brittany Spears? Maybe Paris Hilton.

So, what are you reading? Current books? Some kind of theme? A genre? The Cuthulu mythos? It would be interesting to know.

6 Comments:

At Friday, June 8, 2007 at 2:15:00 AM EDT, Blogger Susan Miller said...

Of course, I have read Gramlich and adored the dive into fantasy.

Other than that, this is the Summer of Faulkner. After completing "As I Lay Dying" I went straight to "The Sound and the Fury".

"I ran down the hill in that vacuum of crickets like a breath travelling across a mirror she was lying in the water her skirt half saturated flopped along her flanks to the waters motion in heavy ripples going nowhere renewed themselves of their own movement.."

 
At Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 12:27:00 PM EDT, Blogger Michelle's Spell said...

Great summer reading, Jon! I haven't read Gatsby in ages, but love it all the same. I've been reading the new Larry McMurty (his last one in the series he began when he was twenty-five) and a bunch of memoirs which is a form I'm starting to really love. The last great one I read was called A Piece of Cake (by Cupcake Brown). A really harrowing story of addiction, abuse, and redemption.

 
At Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 5:25:00 PM EDT, Blogger Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

-sigh-

I think I shall read something of import. I just read a group of short stories by somebody called Mueller. I didn't care much for him, but I'll pass it your way when we get together.

Aside from that, I'll be reading a lot of mindless escapism. I want to escape. Donald Hamilton's "Matt Helm" series. Maybe some Ian Fleming. Certainly I'll read Michael Chabon. I also have a couple of David Sedaris that I haven't touched. I will also explore some new authors and seek out some political non fiction. Maybe a history piece or two. I've recently been reading up on Rome.

Summer..a time for catch up.

 
At Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 12:35:00 AM EDT, Blogger William Jones said...

I did get a chance to return to Gatsby a few months back -- it's one that I've read many times. I am always interested in how his simile and metaphors transgress anticipated rules.

Presently, I'm prowling through a varied number of books. However, I did just re-read August Strindberg's Lady Julia and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (these fellows played off each other -- excuse the dry pun). I would suggest reading these works back to back. Both men were masterful writers (they were dramatists), and each created amazing characters that don't evoke Paris Hilton. :) Wonderful studies in dialogue and character -- and issues that never seem to vanish.

 
At Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 2:23:00 PM EDT, Blogger miller580 said...

I have been in the Modern era the last few months...Hemingway, fitz, Woolf etc. (on deck Checkov)

I am currently reading (for fun) Home Land: A Novel by Sam Lipsyte

And for absurd style research I am enjoying Huxley and Orwell as well I am conducting the "Summer of Chuck" (Palahniuk).

 
At Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 8:55:00 PM EDT, Blogger miller580 said...

ok. I have been meaning to send you more ideas for reading. Stop me if you've heard these before.

The Short Stories of Checkov
Murphy by Samuel Beckett
The Thing they Carried (the novel) Tim O'brien
Lolita by Nabokov
Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

This list contains some new, some old, some funny, and some not. Some are simple stories and some are complex. It is a hodge podge. And honestly, if you have never read A prayer for Owen Meany or Cider House Rules (John Irving). Indulge yourself.

 

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