Recent Reading

I have been deluged with e-mails lately, many of them asking what I have been reading lately. I thought I would let everybody know via my blog. That way I won't need to respond to those many thousands of e-mails.

I read “Empire Falls” by Richard Russo. I now know why my best friend Tom says, “that man can flat out write.”

I read “Doctor Zhivago”. The fact that I read the whole thing means I must have liked it. I did think the philosophical conversations between the good doctor and Lara at the end of the book were a little bit too much and not very true to life.

I read the latest Haruki Murakami novel, “Kafka by the Shore”. I started reading Murakami stories two years ago. His latest novel did not disappoint me. It inspired to play “Destination Unknown” by Missing Persons several times on the jukebox at my local bar.

I have been reading short stories by Lorrie Moore, William Trevor, and Jorge Luis Borges. And why not? Every story I’ve read so far has been mega-awesome.

I read “The Midnight Disease” by Alice Flaherty. She’s a neurologist who suffers from hypergraphia and explains what that is all about in her book. It also explains why I am writing this gibberish in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping.

I read “The Talented Mr. Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith. I’ll be reading the rest of the Ripley novels this year if everything goes right. I love well written weird stuff.

There are a bunch of other books I read too, but they were not memorable. My apologies to you forgotten authors. Better luck next time.

For the next few days or months I’ll be reading more Trevor, Moore, and Borges short stories. And why not? They’re mega-awesome. I’d like to get through all the Flannery O’Conner stories after that.

The chance of me sticking to a reading plan are minimal. I’ll let everybody know in a month or so what I actually did read. I hope this will spare you many thousands of folks from having to write me e-mails about what I have been reading.