what have I been reading lately?


Viva Internationale!

Having just mentioned Quicksilver, and Philip K. Dick, I've been asked, "so what else have you read lately?" PKD, Poul Anderson, Douglas Adams, and JRR Tolkien were my favorite authors when I was younger (oh, and I tend to try to read all the works of a particular author, once I decide I like him/her), but here's what I've been reading over the past several years: Vladimir Nabokov (favorite: Pale Fire), Milan Kundara (Book of Laughter and Forgetting), and Julio Cortazar (Hopscotch).

It's a decidedly international cast, though I didn't consciously seek out such a theme (a long time ago, as well, I read a lot of Wole Solinyka. I was thinking about him recently, at a going away party for a friend, who is moving to Nigeria). Actually, one theme I started was to find out the "hypertext" novels that Ted Nelson mentioned in Literary Machines. That got me reading Pale Fire, which is an excellent, extremely fun novel to read, and re-read. Nabokov is quite entertaining, and a delightful writer. Another best book of his that comes to mind is Pnin.

Then came Cortazar's Hopscotch. Definitely a lot more difficult reading, but I plowed through that long novel. Now I have 52: A Model Kit, but have only gotten a few pages into it. Started it, then along came Quicksilver, so Cortazar has been at rest. Not exactly sure if I like him, though! Strange writing, very mood-building ... not quite sure what else to say.

Kundara is also another fun, but thought-provoking, writer as well. Unbearable Lightness of Being, and the Book of Laughter and Forgetting are great reads, and Kundara plays around with self-referential writing and directly talking to the reader. "Post-modern", you might say. I haven't read a novel of his recently, though I may pick up Identity soon.

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Posted: Thu - December 11, 2003 at 12:48 AM

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