Books, Books and More Books

Julia back at Tension Is To Be Loved was asking about books. She says she's reading Middlesex, and she likes it so much she wants to try to catch up with her old commitment to read at least 25 books a year. I didn't think that was such a big deal, but anyway. I was blown away by how different the people who read the same blog can be! A lady reccomended she reads "The Lovely Bones". Yeah, by Alice Sebolt, whom I have just very recently trashed in this blog. Funny, uh? Someone else reccomended some books I would not even think about picking up- in long and short, the ones my coworker reads. I'm always afraid when one of my Amazon orders comes in at work, because for every book she says "Oh, that looks good!", I know it's tainted and I probably will hate it. It's nothing against her, it's just that it seems our reading taste is as far from similar as it gets. But anyway, I digress.

I find it funny how the taste in book really defines the people I like most. I think my deepest friendships revolve around books, exchanged, borrowed, reccomended. The path that brings us together, if you want. And I usually know whether I'm going to make friends with someone once I learn what they read. Or IF they read. A curious sidenote: past relationships- either non-readers, or about one or two books in common (I remember "Calculating God" as the only book both Frenchie and I read!). Right now Cielo reads what I feed him, and manages not to like almost any of it. I guess I can marry someone like that, but I can't make friends with them!! ahahah!!

What have I read recently that really stands out? well, first of all I'm noticing I'm ever so slightly changing my taste. I can cope with a so-so plot that is masterfully written, but I have a much harder time with a great plot that is written in grade school style. I obviously super prefer it when I can get a good plot and a great writing, but we all know how hard it is to find! I'm also noticing that more and more of the authors I love the most are gay. I don't know why, but they are. So, I'm starting to backtrack into it: if an author is gay, I'm likely to like what he/she writes. Do I like gay people better than straight people? It's growing on me that I probably do. :)

A quick and dirty book review of what I have read in the past few months:

Most recent readings are Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City- Armistead Maupin. I followed PattyZen advice here, and she did not fail me!! He's great. And gay. strike one

David Leavitt- anything he's written. I am more of a novel type than a short stories type, and David keeps on writing these little bits, and I have to put up with him. He writes great novels, for sure, but his short stories are just... special. Quickies, frustratig, but good. The best short story I have ever read I think is "A Place I've Never Been". Great. Definetly Gay.

Jonathan Coe- I have no indications on his sexual preferences, but The House of Sleep and The Winshaw Legacy are just great.

Michael Cunningham- You find The Hours overexploited? pick up Flesh and Blood, or A Home at The End of the World. It only gets better. Absolutely gay.

Jonathan Frentzen- The Corrections is just great. Strong Movement is great, too! Some very interesting concepts on the role of women coming from a character that is hard to sympathize with. If you can agree with someone you don't like, it means the writer has a pretty good way to put it down!

The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster. Pretty incredible book. Just good, awfully good, although I found it slow at times (the times where Rowena was getting all excited! we liked the book for very different reasons!!).

Douglas Coupland is always great. All Families are Psycothic makes you feel better about your own family. Girlfriend in a Coma is awesome. Microserfs describes us well. Miss Wyoming is awfully sad. Hey, Nostradamus is good. I like him. I'm not sure who he sleeps with. I need to read his bio...

I read 54, by Wu Ming. Sorry, the English speaking crowd still doesn't have the translation available, although they're working on it... but you can download it in Dutch, Italian and Spanish for free here. Wu Ming is a group of 5 Italian writers, some write better than others, but they're fascinating...

9.99 by a french guy called Frederic Breidgeber was just a piece of genius. I LOVED this book. Too good to be true. Hilarious.

Kissing in Manhattan, by David Schickler, was great. I actually looked for the Preemption building, and I was really disappointed discovering he made it up!!

Jeffrey Eugenides- Middlesex is FANTASTIC, The Virgin Suicides, from way back when, I found it okay.

I started reading Chuck Palahniuk about 3 times now- Invisible Monsters. It's not that I don't like it, but usually my attention gets diverted. I guess I need to double guess this one. And pick up Survivor.

Tibor Fischer- in English, it's "Under the Frog" (in Italian, Sotto il Culo di una Rana in Fondo a una Miniera di Carbone) -the title alone makes you wanna buy the book, doesn't it?? The Collector Collector (Il Collezionista), another genial book. And then again, the inventor of the concept of "cerebral chewing-gum" must be worshipped!

Cathleen Schine- I didn't know she was gay, but that explains a lot. The Love Letter is great, all else- eh!

I have conflicting feelings about Margaret Atwood and Janette Winterson. I have not been persuaded I really like them.

Avoid if you can- if you haven't caught up on this yet, I'm going to say it one more time: Alice Sebolt, The Lovely Bones- oh my gawd, I understand that picking on rape victims is not particularly popular, but aside from the fact that she's not gay, I have a hard time believing someone could write something in worse form. *bleah*! Avoid Ray Bradbury in anything but Fahrenheit 451. Avoid Dean Koontz and Paolo Maurensig. You might want to play it safe and avoid the latest Ken Follett, too, but if you haven't read it yet pick up Pillars of the Earth, which is a great entertainement novel... Patricia Cornwell, too, I used to like her as a purely entertaining reading, now I HATE her....

Uhm. I realized I did not just give recommendations to the last books I enjoyed, it's more like I compiled a list of what I've been liking and not in the past few years!! I admit some of those are more dated recommendations , cope with me. I'm sure there should be a lot more to say. Let me put it on your side of the field, tell me what you're reading and what you've been liking...

Need to go to bed now. It's past 11pm, it's my second post for the day, and I'm aging. :)