This is the rest of my current To Read pile (the first part is here). We’ll see how long it takes me to get through it all.
After Fathers and Sons, this is the rest of my next cycle of books to read— the first part anyway, the bigger ones will come later. You might be able to see the bookmark in Giovanni’s Room, that’s the one I’m on now.
I finished this a few days ago, at a very interesting time too, as my Tumblr dash was buzzing over the Time magazine article on Millenials. Mid-19th Century Russia was similar to 21st century America in that it too was trying to mitigate its emphasis on progress and advancement as a society, with the conflict that engenders between generations. How do we strike the balance between deferring to our children on everything because they’re better educated, and stubbornly hanging onto traditions merely because we’ve always understood that to be right? I don’t want to give Turgenev’s answer, because it spoils the book.
Bookmark from Sheafe Street Books in downtown Portsmouth. It’s one of three used bookstores in the area, but it’s hard to find because it’s on this tiny little street that’s more of an alley than a street. I talked to the owner today, and he told me his business has been poor, in part because of his location, but also due to all the construction going on around him. Right now we have two bridges down, plus a massive sewer project one block over, so downtown is a total mess. It would be too bad if he had to leave, because his store is really the only true used bookstore in town, you know, the kind with the cat and the claustrophobic space and the old book smell; of the other two, one is more new books with some used ones mixed in, and the other is a bar/restaurant that, while it has a great used book selection, you get funny looks if you only buy books and not $10 appetizers and $8 beers too. We’ll see what happens when the weather gets nicer, maybe more people will stumble upon it. I hope so.
Found this at this nice used bookstore off the beaten path in downtown Portsmouth, Sheafe Street Books. I know I was supposed to be shopping for my mother and brother, and I know I already have enough books, but things happen.
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Here’s my Goodreads page. I posted everything I own for fiction, with a few nonfiction sprinkled in, and a few that I’ve read that I don’t own (a little over 250 books between read and to-read). One thing I’ve noticed, using the most read authors section, is that Hunter S. Thompson, whom I haven’t read a book by since I reread Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 for a grad school class in 2005, is still at the top with nine books. Ernest Hemingway, whom I haven’t read anything by in even longer, is in third with 5. I guess when I was younger, I only read a few authors, and now I try to spread it around a bit more.
I saw on Tumblr last night that people had posted lists of books by women authors in honor of International Women’s Day, so I thought I might do the same (only unfortunately a day late). These are books that, to me, were very influential in my writing, and are among the many that I would recommend to anyone that wants to be a writer.
