What's Blogagaard Been Reading?

I haven't done a book report in a while so I thought I'd catch up in one fell swoop. First of all we've been reading some great books in my Literary Devices class, most notably Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West (novella about a man who starts writing an advice column as a joke and gradually grows depressed by the heartbreaking letters he reads every day), Still Life with Insects by Brian Kiteley (a gentle novella about an entomologist whose bug journal reveals these lovely moments in his life; Kiteley is, curiously, a Carlton grad), and Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (think Umberto Echo without the encyclopedic sensibility, twisting plot, and a slightly more poetic, jaw dropping prose style). All three of these books are very short, and I'd highly recommend each one.

As for private reading I've finally read The Stranger by Albert Camus, another short novel and a fantastic must read for everybody. Sort of reminded me of The Great Gatsby mixed with Kafka's The Trial with a strong vein of philosophy running through it, especially the second half. Smashing, really.

I've also read Stephen King's Cell, which in many ways felt like what Dark Tower 7 could have been if it had avoided the build-up and twenty-year hype. I don't want to give anything away, but let me tell you it's not really about zombies, exactly, but there are flocks of people who listen to bad Muzak at night while staring at the stars and by days kill and pillage in devastating hordes. The first two hundred pages are great, and from 100 to 200 I totally forgot I was reading and entered the world, a rare experience for me these days. I thought Cell lost a little steam towards the end, post-page 200, or more likely King wrote such a fantastic middle to this book nothing could match it....

I've also finished Touched By Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison, which I read mostly because I was told it was the text on manic-depressive disorders and the artists who most likely had it. Very interesting read, I think maybe I have a mild version of it (anyone whose seen me yammering away at a party, and then hung out with me one-on-one during a quiet evening, can probably attest to this). Touched By Fire also helped me a lot with The Cobalt Legacy and its characters...

Finally, I'm currently reading GODPLAYERS by Damien Broderick. This is one of those new-ish science fiction books I pick up every other month at the local library by virtue of its dust jacket: "August suddenly discovers he is a Player in the multiuniverse Contest of Worlds..." The writing is merely passable, but the plot is pretty entertaining. It's like a hyper-Quantum Leap/Sliders/Phillip K. Dick sort of thing. Damien Broderick is originally from Australia, and I really dig his name. I've also dipped into the play Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett. For some reason it reminds me of Seinfeld; a play about nothing and everything.