Something about doing the work of an MFA has made me slow down with my reading, read more like a writer than a greedy print addict consuming words like popcorn. (Reading as a writer - Joyce Carol Oates - on my nightstand) Now that my first semester is done, I've got a lovely backlog of books to read. Notice to your left the new list called "Winter Reading" - but in fact those are the books in the queue. What I actually read this week:
Now You See It - a novel by one of my teachers, Cornelia Nixon. It's set mostly in 1950s and 60s Berkeley, in a professorial family. The story changes points of view smoothly, the characterizations are vivid and enchanting. I love the Berkeley scenes. Am still in the middle of it so an't comment more intelligently.
Cornelia also has an interview with Marilynne Robinson in this collection from McSweeney's: The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. Must add that to the reading list - not only because Cornelia is in it, but because it features interviews with Ian McEwan, Jamaica Kincaid, Janet Malcolm, Tobias Wolff and others.
The other book I'm actually reading this week is Mavis Gallant's Collected Stories. An early short story of hers set in Madrid has haunted me for some time, and I'm taking it apart to see how it works.
At some point this week after finishing my last paper, I found myself on Amazon playing with the "shoppers who bought this book also viewed" function. Amazon required me to open a brand new account, for reasons obscure to me, so they were starting fresh. I plugged in Laila Lalami's book Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, and by clicking the recommendations in succession, I found many, many books I already own, including Maria Golia's Cairo book, Mohja Kahf's poems, Daniel Alarcon and Yiyun Li. These were all books I bought offline in real bookstores, so my own shopping habits weren't affecting the results.
This software's guessing powers are fascinating. I usually think my interests are quirky enough that demographers and marketers can't get them right, but in this case Amazon has enough data and good enough data sifters that they managed to guess a great many of the books on my shelf - at least in its Middle East section.
Another Amazon function I like (okay folks, I know Amazon's president contributes to right-wing causes, and I support buying at independent bookstores, but you have to admit, the software is fun) - the user reading lists. Some time ago I blogged about Rania Masri's Strong Arab Women Writers list - again, many of the titles on there are in my own library. Stay tuned to this space for a post of my own Arab writers reading list.
Oh yeah, and for my secret Christmas present to self I'm getting Gilles Petersen at the BBC - a CD FYI.
(I'm still a dinosaur who relies on CDs for music)
Comments