In the last week or so I have read two books:
- Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith
by Martha Beck - Why Do I Love These People?: Honest and Amazing Stories of Real Families
by Po Bronson
I have not started to read The Good Life by Jay McInerney — the only thing I should be reading. My bookclub meets soon but I just can’t seem to open it.
I just have a few more magazines to get through before I can begin. I think I need to mentally prepare myself for fiction. Before the bookclub (which I enjoy immensely), I hardly read any fiction … which is strange perhaps as I’m a big reader. Jokingly I might say truth is stranger and far more interesting but non-fiction isn’t truth … and sometimes fiction is.
I will get started this weekend — Right after Metropolitan Home but before Utne.
Do you have a favourite book of all time? Mine is “Catcher in the Rye”.
Two come to mind as all-time favourites: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. That was my favourite in university. Also, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. My favourite writer of fiction is Alice Munro. And I loved Catcher in the Rye too.
I’ve read recently that Harper Lee (I also love “To Kill a Mockingbird”) used to hang out with Truman Capote. I want to read “In Cold Blood” before Steph and I go see “Capote”. Some speculate that Capote helped Lee with the book. I’ve never read “Heart of Darkness”, but I’ve always wanted to.
Some people say that Haper Lee didn’t write To Kill a Mockingbird at all. I doubt this but I do think that Capote eas very involved. It is odd (and too bad) that she did not write any other books after such a masterpiece.
“Capote frequently implied that he himself had written a considerable portion of the novel, and at least one person, Pearl Kazin Bell, an editor at Harper’s who cited Lee’s failure to produce another novel, has gone on record supporting the theory of his co-authorship.”
Capote is on my list of films to see too.
Hey – non fiction girl … saw the author of this interviewed and thought you might find it interesting:
I thought “”In Cold Blood” was an interesting book … will probably end up renting as I never seem to get to the movies. Doris Lessing is also an interesting writer IMO.
alee, that is just the kind of book I would love. I am adding it to my list. Was the author interesting? Doris Lessing is one of those authors I know I would enjoy but have not got around to yet.
she was interesting, in the small amount of time i heard her … unfortunately I missed most of the interview 🙁
Have you read this one?
No, I’ve not read “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” but it sounds like something I’d enjoy. That and a 6 pack.