6.30.2009

The Damage Done: Vacation Reading Revealed

  1. Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
  2. John Krakauer, Into the Wild (After reading Lucy, I was immediately compelled to purchase this at Hastings Bookstore in Maryville, TN and read it to see if it might also work for a syllabus I'm imagining. It works!)
  3. Maggie Nelson, Jane: A Murder
  4. J. Hector St John de Crèvecœr, Letters from an American Farmer
  5. Derek McCormack, The Show that Smells
  6. H. G. Wells, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (To wash off the delicious stink of Derek's book, I longed for a 19th century novel by Hawthorne or Gissing; without those on hand, I opted for the Wells, figuring it was the book I was least likely to pick up in the coming year. Really, it's a lovely work. Wells and Derek share a passionate delight in language, though the passions lead to vastly different results, different kinds of roller coasters.)

All are highly recommended. Thank heavens for books like 3 & 5 (and the first half of 6)-- books which demand to be devoured at as quick yet responsibly attentive a pace as possible. Also 2, though it requires little to no responsible attentiveness.

Currently reading: D. R. Woolf, The Idea of History in Early Stuart England: Erudition, Ideology, and 'The Light of Truth' from the Acession of James I to the Civil War
(At present, I wouldn't highly recommend it, but not because of any flaw on Woolf's part. If you've a reason to read this book, then I'd recommend you do so.)

Also currently reading The Blithedale Romance-- "How cold an Arcadia was this!"

2 comments:

Derek McCormack said...

I am flattered, friend!

Erk said...

I've been imagining-- tooling in my mind-- a proper review ever since my initial read of TSTS, but I don't know that the review will ever be realized because I have to focus all my efforts on my dreary dissertation work. Rest assured, though, that it's a rave.