Literoticas Maximus

Shelving Literature is an excercise in restraint, as my list of books to read grew by four today after I finished putting away two carts of books. The list is kept in my little book, in my purse, and NEVER refered to when I need something to read. I am like a literary magpie, always wanting fresh new paper and a cover I've never seen before, not some book I've seen a million times that is set in Venice, or "that captures muggy memories of the deep South"*, or "a poignant look at the disillusionment of today's modern search for love"**, or some such nonsence. I had an eerie experience today when I picked up a book I had never seen, called "The Pearl Diver", was intrigued by review comments on the back (I always grow interested in books that are called "spare" or "achingly beautiful" or "razor-sharp... cuts right to the bone". Often these books are sad. Go figure.) and was able to guess EXACTLY how the book was going to start (with the meditative decsription of a methodical preparation for pearl diving, which shows off the auothor's years of research...i.e.,"She ate her steaming green bowl of seaweed soup...etc, etc"*). I grow jaded and easily let down.
A while ago Halie said she wanted to look at my reading list, so here goes. (Beware! I read, and have been known to deeply love, Fantasy) (if they have a k, I read them, or started to and then discarded them in a fit of disgust):

1. The Alienist by Carr k
2. Outlander series by Gabaldon k (all the men in this book are always getting erections. No wonder Romance Monthly reviewed it!)
3.Wild Decembers by O'Brien k
4. Transit of Venus by Hazzard k (amazingly written, but not good for 10 minute intervals on MUNI)
5. Laborador by Harrison k
6.Tower of Babel, Angels and Insects k (my current book), Matisse stories by Byatt
7.My Dream of You- by Nuala O'Faolin (doesn't she have a wonderful name??)
8. The Disspossesed by LeGuin
9. Fingersmith by Waters k
10. Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Lessing
11. Cook's Tour by Bourdain k
12. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera k (Unbearable is right!)
13. The Kite Runner by Hosseini
14. Running in the Family by Ondaatje (speaking of blurbs making you respond, my favorite blurb in on the Vintage cover of one of my top five books; "The English Patient" by Ondaatje. It says, simply; "A rare and spellbinding web of dreams". Not bad for a book about a bomb-difusser in love with a French nurse.)
15. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
16. 100 Years of Solitude by Garcia Marquez
17. Atonement by McEwan (I read "The Cement Garden" in one sitting. The man is brilliant)
18. The Etched City by K.J. Bishop (a blurb on this book compared it to an Aubrey Beardsley drawing, so, duh, I bought it. it's nouveau-fantasy)
19. The Complete Claudine by Colette k (french lesbian schoolgirl hijinks sometimes grow wearying after 3 books in a row. I suggest breaking them up)
20. Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys
21. A Memberof the Wedding by McCullers
22. The Reader by Schlink
23. A Scanner Darkly by Dick k
24. The Diviners by Laurence
25. The Magic Toyshop by Carter k (this book rules)
TODAY'S ADDITIONS
26. Ingrid Caven by Schuhl
27. Anything by Henning Mankell (Swedish mysteries that my manger says should be in the genre of "Soft-Boiled" instead of "Hard-Boiled"!!)
28. Stay by Griffith (Mystery by poetic fantasy author)
29. The Flanders Panel by Perez-Reverte (art history mystery by sexy Spaniard)