Reading list
I like being surrounded by books. I don't collect first editions, I mostly buy cheap paperbacks rather than hardcover, and I keep them on cheap Ikea bookshelves. Still, I like having them around, to the point of preferring to buy a paperback rather than check it out at the library. This despite having less and less time to read these days (and I expect in a matter of weeks that my available reading time will dwindle to nothing).
Why am I bringing this up? Because we're finally trying to get the baby room in some semblance of order. Friends are coming over to help us move furniture around, and one of the moves will be to take a big bookshelf that is crammed to overflowing down to the basement. I could just put them in boxes, but I can't bring myself to do it. I draw comfort from knowing that I can go down and pick out just the right book for someone, even if I almost never actually do so.
All of this reminded me that I had read a few books over the past year or so that I enjoyed and thought I would do a public service and spread the word. I've had others I've mentioned along the way, but I think these are the ones I glossed over at the time:
The Locklear Letters - Michael Kun: One of the easier, and funnier, reads. A story told through letters to Heather Locklear from a sad-sack whose life is slowly falling around him. Clever and funny, and can be read in a day or two.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore: As indicated by the title, it's the missing Gospel as told by Christ's best friend, Levi who is called Biff. It's actually not as sacrilegious as it sounds, and even though the story is completely absurd and loses momentum as it goes along, it's quite clever and at times had me laughing out loud.
The Beach - Alex Garland: OK, so pretty much everyone of a certain age or less have already read this or seen the (supposedly awful) film version. For some reason I hadn't done either, so when I saw it on sale cheap in Thailand--and since it's set in Thailand--I had to pick it up. Very Lord of the Flies-esque. While I never did the backpacker thing, I still think I appreciated the book more now that I've done more traveling. I was prepared to be thoroughly disappointed, but it was actually an enjoyable page-turner (albeit dark, at times to the point of being almost sickening). I'm willing to concede, however, that maybe reading it on a beach in Thailand contributed to my enjoyment of the book.
How Soccer Explains the World: An (Unlikely) Theory of Globalization - Franklin Foer: Like many Americans my age, I grew up playing soccer but quit by the time I got to high school and never took to it as a spectator. I had started to rediscover it prior to moving to Basel, and now that I'm living here I find myself following European soccer more closely. While I thought this book's attempt to link soccer to variety of global trends wasn't always that interesting or effective, the actual stories of the background behind some of the biggest rivalries in the world was fascinating. (Which reminds me, with a huge scandal brewing in Italian soccer, I should probably go back and re-read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro.)
Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family - Charles Bowden: Non-fiction exploration of the drug trade across the US border as told through a single murder. Not a very linear narrative if that puts you off, but intriguing, disturbing and upsetting. Let's just say that almost no one comes out of this smelling like a rose.
Why am I bringing this up? Because we're finally trying to get the baby room in some semblance of order. Friends are coming over to help us move furniture around, and one of the moves will be to take a big bookshelf that is crammed to overflowing down to the basement. I could just put them in boxes, but I can't bring myself to do it. I draw comfort from knowing that I can go down and pick out just the right book for someone, even if I almost never actually do so.
All of this reminded me that I had read a few books over the past year or so that I enjoyed and thought I would do a public service and spread the word. I've had others I've mentioned along the way, but I think these are the ones I glossed over at the time:
The Locklear Letters - Michael Kun: One of the easier, and funnier, reads. A story told through letters to Heather Locklear from a sad-sack whose life is slowly falling around him. Clever and funny, and can be read in a day or two.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore: As indicated by the title, it's the missing Gospel as told by Christ's best friend, Levi who is called Biff. It's actually not as sacrilegious as it sounds, and even though the story is completely absurd and loses momentum as it goes along, it's quite clever and at times had me laughing out loud.
The Beach - Alex Garland: OK, so pretty much everyone of a certain age or less have already read this or seen the (supposedly awful) film version. For some reason I hadn't done either, so when I saw it on sale cheap in Thailand--and since it's set in Thailand--I had to pick it up. Very Lord of the Flies-esque. While I never did the backpacker thing, I still think I appreciated the book more now that I've done more traveling. I was prepared to be thoroughly disappointed, but it was actually an enjoyable page-turner (albeit dark, at times to the point of being almost sickening). I'm willing to concede, however, that maybe reading it on a beach in Thailand contributed to my enjoyment of the book.
How Soccer Explains the World: An (Unlikely) Theory of Globalization - Franklin Foer: Like many Americans my age, I grew up playing soccer but quit by the time I got to high school and never took to it as a spectator. I had started to rediscover it prior to moving to Basel, and now that I'm living here I find myself following European soccer more closely. While I thought this book's attempt to link soccer to variety of global trends wasn't always that interesting or effective, the actual stories of the background behind some of the biggest rivalries in the world was fascinating. (Which reminds me, with a huge scandal brewing in Italian soccer, I should probably go back and re-read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro.)
Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family - Charles Bowden: Non-fiction exploration of the drug trade across the US border as told through a single murder. Not a very linear narrative if that puts you off, but intriguing, disturbing and upsetting. Let's just say that almost no one comes out of this smelling like a rose.
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