Reading Wednesday

[yuuago]

I reached my goal for the year (50 books), so I've upped it to 75. ;V We'll see how this goes.

Just Finished: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. This one is a novel about tradition, comfort, resolution, and stories. More than anything else I was struck by how beautiful the writing is - this author has quite a way with words. I might need to seek out her other work.

Currently Reading: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. This novel comes up every time somebody mentions alternate history, and it's been kind of on the to-read list for a while, but I've only managed to get around to it now. One thing that I failed to osmose about it was the reincarnation trope; I had no idea until very recently that it was an important part of the novel. Anyway, I'm about halfway through it, and I'm finding it difficult to put down. I don't read this particular speculative subgenre very often, but this is making me wonder if I should look up some others; it's a pretty good read. :)

Reading Next: Prrrobably Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I went to the library looking for Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita, but they didn't have it (I'll have to ILL it), so I decided to go for this one instead, which I've been meaning to read for a while.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, I kinda want to start tracking how much i read a year. 50 books sounds like A LOT.

I heard so much about The Master and Margarita before reading it that I walked in with big expectations and ended up disappointed. You obviously need some knowledge of Russian history and specifically the political context during which it was written to get part of the appeal, so the political satire went right over my head. There are also apparently nods to literature classics I haven't read, so basically I was left with a mostly okay fantasy/magical realism book to enjoy. I wonder what your impressions will be!

LK

[yuuago]

Goodreads is pretty handy for tracking. Or you could always just do it with a list, I used to do that. xD It's kind of fun to look back to see the different things one read over the course of the year.
I typically read while waiting for the bus, so that's a lot of time to get through things.

Thanks for the note about M&M. I hadnn't looked up anything about it, because I usually don't; only reason this is on my to-read is because Laufey likes it a lot, so I wasn't actually aware that it's a satire. I'll have to see if I can get one with thorough explanatory notes.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, as Laufey said, satire certainly isn't all there is to it. There's a strong spirituality side to it as well that mixes several traditions and I assume can be read in a myriad different ways, according to one's own beliefs, so that's interesting too. You'll probably be able to enjoy it on some level even without explanatory notes.

LK