Reading List: November 2008

Despite my glacial progress on my thesis over this semester, my proposal is complete and being reviewed as we speak by my committee in order to be finalized soon. In its writing, a moderate literature review was necessary which gives me a solid start on the full version, which is my seminar paper for my current class. I need to read through a couple of books and a few articles, then hammer the rest of it out over the weekend. Feeling pretty good about that.

One negative to this sort of work in academia is the length of tie one must dedicate to a central topic, especially since I tend to be interested in a lot of different things for a short period of time. I just started a book on hermetic philosopher Giordani Bruno, something that likely will have no bearing on any future scholarship. There are times when the difference between literary/cultural criticism and scholarly criticism seem so pronounced that I am beginning to realize the art of doing some things I don't really want to do is necessary to have the time and funds to the things I really enjoy. This is the closest thing to a perfect fit that I have found, though if someone wanted to be my benefactor, I certainly wouldn't turn them down.

In the midst of the thesis work, I managed to finish fifteen books over the past month, and this is what they were:

• Mere Mortals by David Mack
• Active Liberty by Stephen Breyer
• Orality and Literacy by Walter J. Ong
• The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
• Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
• The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell
• Daughter of the North by Sarah Hall
• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
  
• Write It When I'm Gone by Thomas M. DeFrank
• Feed by M.T. Anderson
• Lost Souls by David Mack
• Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
• Dictation by Cynthia Ozick
• Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith

Though I found The Fall of Hyperion one of the best SF books I have ever read, I didn't feel that I had all that much to say about it when I was finished. And perhaps that is the sign that a book has truly succeeded: it was so well executed that one can't really find much to comment on when it is finished. I might have liked the first book, Hyperion, a bit more because of the Cantebury Tales device, but this novel managed to be thrilling and I couldn't quit turning the pages. I am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

I'll probably have something written on Girl Meets Boy in the next day or so, but I would recommend you take a look at the Canongate Myth Series, of which this is a part. I have enjoyed most of the books, and some like David Grossman's Lion's Honey a great deal.

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated. I wouldn't mind a recommendation or two either.