Monday, April 28, 2008

the eager reader.

I love Portland for making a book worm out of me.

Currently I am reading:
Solidarity Will Transform the World (about Catholic Relief Services)
The Long Lonliness (autobiography of Dorothy Day)
Jesus For President (turned my sister into a Pacifist)

Here is my reading wish list, and I am frustrated because I cannot read fast enough. I want all this information to be in my brain now!

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Oh The Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Sabon
Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver
Anything by John Fante
I want to re-read all the Salinger

What are you reading? What should I be reading? What books are changing your life? I'm thoroughly enjoying everything I'm reading and I'm eager to read more and learn more and be full of words. Please do share your suggestions.

6 comments:

rpj said...

Because you are so kind as to comment on my blog, because I have never on yours, because I like to read:

"The Learners" by Chip Kidd (The follow up to his first novel "The Cheese Monkeys" which had Catcher moments, which is of course why I liked it)

"Sharp Teeth" (About werewolves in LA, yes, how cool is that)

I still haven't finished "What Is The What", and probably never will.

ms. tea said...

dang girl, you move away and become my reading soul mate?! Day, Merton, Bonheffer, pacifism, you just described 40% of our home's bookshelf ;)

do i have some books to lend you! i am thinking of starting a reading exchange program with my out of state friends, loaning books and sending them to each other cheap through media mail. let me know what you think...

ms. tea said...

oops, i totally missed the bottom of your post about what we are reading and would recommend.

You should look into Simone Weil.

I have been quite the bookworm lately too, having 2+ hours per day on the train.

Lately I have been reading a lot of Shusako Endo (amazing Japanese Catholic novelist, highly recommended) and lots of long british and russian classics. Right now I am reading the distopic satire We by Eugene Zamiatin (which predated 1984 and Brave New World and which certainly influenced them)

KAMN! said...

Myste is right on about Endo. I read "The Silence" a few years ago and I'm still recovering, its really magnificent and challenging.

chad said...

i was gonna leave some book ideas, but your other friends are way smarter than me!

Anonymous said...

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - http://www.amazon.com/Gilead-Novel-Marilynne-Robinson/dp/0374153892

Written from a preacher's perspective as a series of letters to his young son (who he doesn't think he'll live long enough to really be around).

So so so gorgeous.