I follow my enthusiasm by reading…a lot. And once a month, I share (some of) the books I read last month and the books I intend to read this month. You can join the informal book club by sharing your own list in the comments and find all the posts here.
What I read
- The Magician’s Land, by Lev Grossman. I've been waiting on this book since I finished the last book and it did not disappoint. It was a great ending to the trilogy. But it did have an adverse affect – I didn't feel like picking up another book for a good week after finishing it.
- Wonder Woman Unbound, by Tim Hanley. I don't remember why I picked this book up, but it's a fascinating history of of the comic book superheroine. The book dives into the motivation of her creator (a rare 1940s feminist (male) psychologist who developed the DISC personality theory and the lie detector test!) and how she's been transformed throughout the years. It serves as a great introduction to feminist cultural criticism and it was fun to read.
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green. I read this in one day on the train to LA (and back) and it was delightful and devastating.
What I'm reading
- The Happiness of Pursuit, by Chris Guillebeau
- Inferno, by Dante
- The checklist manifesto: how to get things right, by Atul Gawande.
- Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (it seems like the right time of year, eh?)
The Great Books Project
After months of waffling, the Great Books Project is finally underway. I’m tracking it via GoodReads (my entire list is here) and holding discussions on the Facebook page, with conversations about our lists, our progress, and regular quotes from the books I love. I’ll be sharing a little update here each month, and you’re welcome to join in on your own project, either in the comments, or over on the FB page (the joy of FB is that we can all reply to each other).
After last month's reading glut, this month, the official beginning, kinda fizzled. I got two translations of Confessions from my library and they both were totally impossible to read. So I ordered this translation…and it didn't arrive yet. I got about halfway through Aeneid, and then it was due at the library and I was going out of town…so I'll pick it back up again this month. (I'm enjoying it much less than the Odyssey, frankly.) I got Dante's Inferno from my library, so we'll see how that goes!
What are you reading?