On
the Bookshelf
So...for some absurd reason, you'd like to know what I'm reading, have recently read, or am planning to read. As it happens, I'm only to happy to share some of that information. These are the items that don't fit into any of my other categories, or things that I've enjoyed and hope that the sort of person who spends any kind of time at all lingering around my pages will enjoy as well. Or I'm trying to send a message. You be the judge.
Julian Barnes, Love, Etc. (sequel to, and as good as, Talking It Over)
Julian Barnes, Metroland
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker
- Think that creationism is a joke? So do I. So does Dawkins (married to the lovely Lalla Ward, both friends of the late and infinitely lamented Douglas Adams) - the difference is that Dawkins doesn't find the joke all that funny, and can prove it wrong.
J. P. Donleavy, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B.
J. P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man (thanks, Beck, if you're listening, unlikely as it may be)
Lawrence Durrell, Justine (time to read it again)
Ben Elton, Stark
G. R. Elton (no relation, I don't think), England Under the Tudors
Frances Donaldson, P. G. Wodehouse, the Authorised Biography
Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish
- It's won a number of prizes in Australia and the US & UK, but I think that the title alone would have hooked me.
Stephen Jay Gould, The Lying Stones of Marrakech
- Another book that I have yet to read by the late, much lamented Gould.
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana (I just saw the film with Alec Guinness again)
Geoffrey Grigson, The Faber Book of Love Poetry (if and when I find the thing)
Xavier Herbert, Capricornia
Rob Hirst, Willie's Bar and Grill
- Two important things to note here: 1) Rob Hirst is the drummer for the Midnight Oil, who broke up in December, 2002, and 2) this book is bloody brilliant. Hirst is a literate (or at the very least, well-edited) and amusing writer, but what would you expect from the man who has been one of the co-writers of so many brilliant songs over the years? You'll have to hunt for this book though, especially if you don't live Downunder - try Dymocks online for a copy. If you like the Oils in the least, or would enjoy a funny, insightful, and sometimes justly critical, but ultimately sympathetic view of the US in the 21st century, then this is a book you won't want to miss.
Nick Hornby, About a Boy
Nick Hornby, How to be Good
Jonathan Lethem, Amnesia Moon (thanks to Jaron Theye for this suggestion)
Jonathan Lethem, Gun, with Occasional Music (as above)
William Poundstone, Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos
Lytton Strachey, Elizabeth and Essex
Alan Titchmarsh, Mr. MacGregor
- Titchmarsh: best known for Gardner's World and the BBC America aeternal Ground Force. Yes, it's fluff. And I liked The Last Lighthouse Keeper better. I'll probably still read Only Dad, but only after I've done some other things first.
Ralph Vaughan Williams, National Music and Other Essays
Ursula Vaughan Williams, R. V. W., a Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams
