What you READING?

[AnsleyL]

Just finished this book called Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata..

Slim novel about an irritating sociopath who works in a convenience store.. Was a sensation in Japan... I don't get it..

Anyone reading anything good?

[Richard E]

Re: Convenience Store Woman, I read this earlier and the year and wrote:
This novel(la?) seems to be about an autistic or asperger's spectrum character but that is never mentioned or hinted at. She's just seen as abnormal and her family and coworkers and friends say a bunch of really basic things to her about not fitting in. She's good at clerking in the store. She takes in another misfit, who refuses to work any job at all and this is not good for her situation but she's pretty indifferent to everything. I liked the plain writing and thought it suited the story and main char. B.

Just finished Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney and thought it was good.

Recently read All the Names They Used for God, stories by Anjali Sachdeva and would recommend it.

[AnsleyL]

Yeah I thought it was a nothing story.. what was the author's point?  that the way she saw the world was reality while the rest of us are fooling ourselves?  Nothing really happened.. I think something got lost in translation... cause this was a huge hit in Japan..   Do they not know about Asperger's there?

[Andy B]

Reading a Dave Barry book at the moment.
Next up is Herman Wouk- Marjorie Morningstar

[TA Epley]

 Not as much time to hit the books these days, but I’m really enjoying listening to the audio book of “I, Claudius” by Robert Graves. I had previously read his memoir of the trenches “Goodbye To All That”, but that in no way prepared me for his work as a novelist, which is as much a soap opera as it is a history lesson. Highly recommended.

[AnsleyL]

I remember the old show in PBS as a kid

[TA Epley]

This morning:

A little Gary Snyder while I waited for my BLT at the cafe. Last time I was in that situation it was Michael McClure, and I found myself missing his sense of the absurd, not very fair to Mr. Snyder.

Gary Snyder: a sinecure for p. whalen

Michael McClure: the flowers of politics (I)

[AnsleyL]

Used to love Gary Snyder when I was a kid... stripped to the bone poetry

[Daphne Y]

Used to read a book each week but the Trump era finds me unable to concentrate on literature or pry myself away from these shitty headlines. 2020 needs to usher in a new era of books and betterment. These have been some of the shittiest collective cultural years in my lifetime.

[AnsleyL]

Yeah I had a problem reading fiction for years.. as a kid and younger man it was all I read ... been getting back into it recently .

[TA Epley]

Short Story:

 “Am Strande Von Tanger” by James Salter

Been keeping his magnum opus “A Sport & A Pastime”, stowed always. Something to look forward to reading, when I have the time. Everything I’ve read by him so far has been excellent.

[AnsleyL]

My daughters been reading a series called Dork Diaries.. zipping through them.. she goes through series like I used to when I was a kid.. I’d read the whole series of an author if I liked it.. great brain, oz, xanth, Ronald Dahl...

[Richard E]

Just finished Normal People by Sally Rooney and thought it was quite good.

[Saskia L]

I used to read a lot more than now. I still read a good few pages a day but mainly articles rather than books. Before I had kids I was reading 2 to 3 books per week. I was quite fast as well, could manage to read an average 200-250 pages in a little bit over 2 hours... And when I was a child I was constantly reading. I miss it, just can't find the time anymore. There is something about getting lost in a text that is idiosyncratic to reading and can't be compared to listening to music or watching movie, it's a whole different level of sensations.

[AnsleyL]

Reading something called neon in daylight by hermiione hoby.. it’s readable