Christopher's 2009 reading

The book I've been looking forward to reading the most is Roberto Bolano's 2666. I think quite a few people are devoting their January to it and I will be as well. I'm currently teaching as well as a graduate student, but my graduate classes don't resume until the end of the month, so I have some time to invest in this novel. For those who have started it, the first section on the scholars/lit professors I have found quite humorous.

I live in Tokyo, but I was just home in Boston and New York, and amidst meeting friends and family, I snuck in three works that I had read about from afar: Charles Bock's The Beautiful Children, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland and Jhumpha Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, all of which I had heard praise of in the past year. I didn't intend to read The Beautiful Children, but I came across it and said: why not. I found the view of Las Vegas life to be pretty dark, but I don't think the novel will stick with me. There are so many parallels with my life and Netherland that it struck me on a personal level and I read it in about two sittings. As for all of the praise it's garnered as a piece of literature, well I don't know. I like Lahiri's short stories, although they seem to frequently be about the same topics, but again they hit me at a personal level and I like reading them.

Okay, I love jazz and I live in Tokyo, city of jazz clubs and cafes, but not city of lots of jazz books/history/criticism available inexpensively in English. Therefore, I picked up quite a few books while I was at home. Among others, I'm looking forward to Gary Giddins Visions of Jazz, Ian Carr's biography of Keith Jarrett and Geoff Dyer's novel (I think it's a novel) But Beautiful.

In the past year I've found that I read less non-fiction and more fiction. I'd also like to read more poetry in 2009. Authors to read on my bookshelf include: Mario Vargas Llosa, John Cheever, Yukio Mishima, John Banville and Salman Rushdie. As for poets: more Charles Simic, Octavio Paz, Pessoa, Chuya Nakahara and a few anthologies of poetry I hope to dip into.

I live in Tokyo, so Japanese fiction in translation abounds, but I was once a fairly dedicated student of Japanese (until I started graduate school), and hope to spend more time studying Japanese in 2009. Reading Japanese is about the hardest skill the language throws at you, which is tough for a book lover, but I'd like to try and invest some time in doing some basic readings this year. We'll see how that turns out.

As I've mentioned, I'm busy, but I hope to contribute to this group.

Best,

Christopher

Christopher,

Thanks for the interesting tidbit about Bolano's 2666. You've inspired me to read it . . . at some point.

Christopher, I do a lot of freelance writing, and recently did a couple of articles about Michigan State University's jazz faculty and their connection with Japan. One of the students from MSU has made a career for herself as a jazz singer in Tokyo clubs.

Never knew how fierce the Japanese were about jazz, but the story was fun to write!

"Beautiful Children" and "Netherland" sound interesting.

urania1,

I'm finding it to be enjoyable, very engaging and it makes me laugh as well. I bought the edition that's comprised of three paperbacks and I read a good chunk of the first one today. Did you read anything else by him? I've only read The Savage Detectives of which I found slow at first, then difficult to put down.

Christopher

nohrt4me,

Yeah, I think there are a fair amount of American (European as well come to think of it) jazz musicians who are making it here in Japan because there's quite a scene. I only wish I had more time (and money) to enjoy it!

I wouldn't recommend Beautiful Children but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it. It just didn't grab me or something. Netherland is worth it!

Christopher

I agree with Christopher. Beautiful Children is one of those books destined for the recycle pile. I was distinctly underwhelmed. NPR did, however, feature it.

urania1 - the New York Times Book Review did as well, and that's why I remembered it. Who knows...

Christopher

Thanks for the thoughts about Roberto Bolano - my TBR includes a book of short stories by him. Don't have time for his masterwork just now...

Taught Charles Simic last week and (speaking of Japanese lit) will be teaching Ryunosuke Akutagawa in a few weeks. Not in the original Japanese, though ;) Enjoy both of them.

I'm on to the last book of 2066 (I have the 3-volume paperback set) and I've found the whole work to be engaging and, in a way, I don't want it to end. However, I'm starting a job hunt and my grad school classes resume next week, so I sense I'm about to become rather busy, so I need to finish it!

What book of short stories is that cocoafiend?

What kind of teaching situation will you be doing Akutagawa in? I've only read "Rashomon", but I have his most recent collection/translation on my bookshelf. I taught, I think, a poem or two by Simic in an ESL and poetry class a couple years back. The more I read of Simic - and listen to, he's a great reader - the more I like of his work.

Christopher

Hm. Simic. I have a couple of older volumes of his work, but I'm afraid I just didn't seem to connect with him. I might have to take another look.

Avaland - I happened on Simic reading on the NYRB web site a while back and I really enjoyed it. Sometimes I find that I like a poet better if I've heard them read, as their voice, accent, cadence, etc. tends to stick with me when I read their work thereafter.

Here's the link to the mp3: http://media.nybooks.com/102008-simic.mp3 or go to this page: http://www.nybooks.com/podcasts/ and scroll about half way down until you find Simic. It's worth 15 minutes if you're looking to give him another go.

Cheers,

Christopher

Another thing - Bolano's 2666 certainly doesn't feel like the 900+ pages it adds up to. I'm nearly finished and yet I'd be quite happy if it were to continue on for a while...

Christopher, the collection is called Last Days on Earth and includes 14 "bleakly luminous stories" (so says the Amazon review).

I taught Akutagawa today as part of a class on point of view. His "In a Grove" and Alejo Carpentier's "Like the Night" made a wonderful comparison. I posted comments about it on my thread here:http://www.librarything.com/topic/50924.
I did try to give some context about Monogatari, but the class was mostly about perspective.

Avaland, I haven't read a lot of Simic - a few stray poems, plus his book on Joseph Cornell, Dime-Store Alchemy, but I did enjoy them.

Finished Bolano a few weeks back. Found myself completely engaged, especially as it went on, and couldn't pick up any fiction for a weeks after as I didn't really want to leave Bolano's world.

Read Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road as I find that good travel writing to be a good between novels. Also read Gary Giddin's Visions of Jazz and working on Stanley Crouch's Considering Genius. Any jazz fans on here? There both worthy books, but I find Crouch's writing to be much richer.

Finally, started Rabbit, Run a couple of days ago. Seemed the right time to try it again - the first time I read about the first hundred pages or so but didn't have any feeling for it and put it down.

Christopher

I'm a jazz fan, Christopher. I have Considering Genius, but I haven't read it yet. I thought I had Visions of Jazz too, but it's not in my library.

One book that I may read in March was recommended to me by a friend that works at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis, which chronicles the Chicago based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which includes the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton.

yes, jazz fan here!!! but I don't read about Jazz, but I am interested in what you have to say about your jazz reading, so please go ahead and review!

I'm especially interested in what you have to say about the Keith Jarrett book you mentioned earlier in your thread. I admire Keith Jarrett to the point of idolatrous worship.

#15 - more into "modern classical" - an almost meaningless phrase which only serves to say, more or less, non-pop/non-jazz (though i'm a major pop fanboy).
Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker, has a excellent, relatively new, book on modern musics: The Rest is Noise. On his blog..
http://www.therestisnoise.com/ there are more examples, snippets of sound, etc. which complements the book nicely. He's weak on avant- rock but (as far as i can tell) very sound on most of his topics

Chris, if you'd like to open a separate thread for jazz discussion, please do (or anyone else for that matter). I can count easily six or seven members of this group who are fans. I opened a separate thread for Bolano discussion also. I think many people miss some of the great discussions on people's individual threads because they can't get around to reading all of them. Thus, it's good to pull a great topic out into a separate thread where everyone can see it. If you (or someone else) does create a separate thread, I would suggest putting a couple of asterisks at the beginning of the title to differentiate it from the book log threads (it makes it easier to find).

btw, Billy Collins' poetry is laced with jazz references. Not sure if his newer volumes are, but certainly the older ones.

I'm not especially a jazz fan, though a little here and there definitely doesn't hurt, but thought I would throw in a word for Josef Skvorecky's fiction. Not only is he a great writer, but he infuses his stuff with jazz playing characters and in one book (The Cowards) uses jazz as a counterpoint to the ravages of World War II in eastern Europe.

Murakami is a major jazz fiend; ran a jazz club (as do a couple of his protagonists) before writing full time. (as usual, posting w/out double checking-the bit about running a jazz club).

Glad to see all of these posts! Sorry if I can't participate so much!

Kidzdoc: Check out considering genius as it's worth it. Crouch definitely has a voice and is interesting to read.

Kidzoc & Medellia12: OK, I've seen this book and it does sound interesting. But I'd like to see some AACM music recommendations! I'm not sure where to start. I have some 60's Braxton CDs, but I've never been very enthusiastic about them. Actually, I'm going to listen to them now and re-assess a bit.

tomcatMurr: I had the same relationship with Keith Jarrett for the latter half of 2008! Wonderful! I think I hit some kind of mental 'reset' button in my head around the New Year as now I'm spending my time with a lot of 20's and 30's recordings: Duke, Bix, Pops, etc.

bobmcconnaughey: yes, that book comes strongly recommended doesn't it? I'd like to check it out sometime.

avaland: Another thread isn't a bad idea, although my ability to participate is limited, so I won't be the initiator! Didn't know Billy Collins poetry had jazz references. What collection of his poetry would you recommend? There is a lot of jazz in the poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa and I think his Neon Vernacular is fantastic.

depressaholic: I used to live in Prague and I read quite a bit of Czech fiction in translation. I read The Engineer of Human Souls but didn't read anything else. If I'm not mistaken, he has a book of essays on jazz. I liked that big work, but wasn't really taken with it. I am a big fan of the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal - anything he wrote is worth your time I think.

bobmcconnaughey: I live in Tokyo and where I work in suburban Tokyo is supposedly just where Murakami had his club. Actually, it's such a suburban place that I can't really imagine a jazz club there. Most of the Japanese people I know don't like Murakami (I do, for what it's worth) and as a jazz fan I like his references to musicians and records, but some people found it pretentious as jazz is "fashionable" in Japanese culture. Or that's how someone explained it to me.

Cheers,

Christopher

Chris, I'm interested to hear that most of you Japanese friends don't like Murakami, even though he is sooo popular in the West, and in other Asian countries. Do they ever say why they don't like him? Do you have any thoughts yourself about that?

Chris, I'll definitely read Considering Genius sooner rather than later. I'll probably also want to read A Power Stronger Than Itself in the next month or two, so that I can discuss it with a friend. I'm not very familiar with AACM or its artists' recording, but my friend might be able to help with that.

Like Murr, I'm also curious why your Japanese friends don't care for Murakami. Who do they like?

Like Murr & kidzdoc, I'm also curious why your Japanese friends don't care for murakami. Who do they like?

I have heard from Japanese friends & friends who are familiar Japanese lit & culture in a much deeper way than I am that Haruki Murakami is not seen as authentically Japanese - some have even suggested that he writes his books in English and then translates them back into Japanese, implying that his style is "too American" and whatnot. I'll also be interested in Chris's thoughts on this.

Where is that man?

Hi tomcatMurr, kidzdoc, avaland and fannyprice; sorry for the delay in my response: I am quite busy at the moment!

I don't have any definite answer as to why some people don't like Murakami. I feel that perhaps it's a rejection of his popularity, and specifically his international popularity. Not just in Japan, but in other places as well I feel that when a culture produces someone that's internationally famous there's a skepticism of that person's work simply because their work has become known in other places. When I lived in Prague, I rarely met a Czech that liked Milan Kundera, and I felt that his popularity internationally was part of the basis for Czechs dismissing his work.

I've also found that Japanese people tend to be dismissive of foreign people's interest in Japanese culture to some extent, in the sense that foreign people can't really 'get' Japanese culture and because they can't get it, something that they are interested in merits skepticism.

A friend here said they thought Murakami's work was trendy (in a bad sense), and specifically his interest in jazz, a trendy thing in Japan, and therefore rejected him. Perhaps in other places people don't sense that. Another group of people don't 'get' his writing and fail to see the appeal of his work.

What do you all think? Please forgive my generalizations about Czech and Japanese culture!

A couple of popular Japanese writers at the moment are Natsuo Kirino and Miyuki Miyabe, neither of which I have read, although I know that Kirino's out is widely available in English. Also, I wanted to clarify that Murakami is indeed popular, but I've just come across a lot of negativity towards his work here.

Wanted to update my reading. As I said, I am busy, and my graduate classes keep me fairly consumed for reading, however, I try to sneak in some stuff for myself as well, and I am on a real kick for jazz writing. I just finished Stomping the Blues by Albert Murray which was an exploration of the meaning of the blues and how it manifested itself in people like Charlie Parker or Lester Young. It's a nice book and is quite wonderfully illustrated with photographs. I also started Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful and I have only read the first story, a poetic telling of Lester Young's life, but I'm totally hooked and I am going to have trouble putting it down - the combination of fiction and non-fiction seems quite wonderful.

The two Japanese writers you mention are very popular here in Taiwan, Chris, in Chinese translation, as is Murakami of course.

I think you might be right in #28. Is there perhaps also the feeling that Murakami blends so much of Western culture into his descriptions of Japan -his characters always like Western jazz, Western brand names, Western lit etc. Perhaps Japanese readers feel it's not pure Japanese, or perhaps they feel threatened by M's Western name-dropping?

On your jazz reading, have you read Philip Larkin's jazz reviews? He also has a good reputation for writing about jazz.

>31 QuentinTom: both Japanese authors you mentioned are known as mystery authors here. It seems I first saw Out on the nomination list for the Edgar Awards for best first novel (mystery genre). Kodansha International, who publishes these two, publishes Japanese fiction and books about Japanese culture. http://www.kodansha-intl.com/ They used to send me advanced readers' copies from time to time while I was still at the bookstore.

Speaking as someone from Czechoslovakia, I must speak up about Josef Skvorecky. Engineer of Human Souls is not, IMHO, one of his more interesting works. The two which are key, and both have jazz as a major preoccupation, are Cowards and The Bass Saxophone. The Bass Saxophone is widely available in an edition which also has another novella in it, called Legend Emoke, as well as Skvorecky's essay on jazz and totalitarianism. Wonderful intro to an excellent writer, with jazz to boot!

polutropos: Thanks for the Skvorecky recommendations - I need to check him out again sometime and I'll remember those. Never heard of Cowards but definitely familiar with The Bass Saxophone but haven't read it.

avaland - I think mystery as a genre is quite popular in Japan. I know Kodansha - they also publish materials for Japanese language learners, and any older Japanese book seems to be published by them. Reader's copies sound nice!

tomcatMurr: I haven't read Philip Larkin's jazz reviews - I'll look into those. In fact, I have an anthology of jazz writing, Reading Jazz, that has an essay by him in there. Will check it out later. I'd love to read Ralph Ellison's jazz writing, Living with Music which comes highly, highly recommended.

Living with Music is my favorite jazz related book.

At some point I'd like to revisit Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954-2000 by Whitney Balliett, the long time jazz critic for The New Yorker. It's a doorstopper though (858 pp, not counting the index).

kidzdoc,

I've been enjoying reading about jazz so much recently that I did a little hunting around to see what other people recommended and came across that Whitney Balliet book just this morning. How is it? Door stoppers can have a lot of appeal when you want a lot. Can't wait to get into Living with Music in the very near future!

Christopher

It's very good. Balliett was a brilliant writer, and his articles consisted mainly of concert and album reviews and short vignettes about jazz musicians and venues in NYC.

One of my favorite entries is "Mingus Among the Unicorns", a review of a 1959 Charles Mingus Quintet concert in New York. You can read it on Google Books here:

Mingus Among the Unicorns

Thanks kidzdoc - I read his profile of Pee Wee Russell last night and it was a fun read, even for someone who doesn't know Russell's music. I need to get a hold of that book!

Christopher

Wanted to update what I've been reading since the last time I posted:

As I mentioned before, I really am doing quite a bit of jazz reading this year, so recently I read the two volumes by New York Times writer Ben Ratliff that have been published in the last few years. Coltrane: The Story of a Sound is essential for Coltrane fans, but also well written and good for a lot of insights as to why Coltrane is revered, but also what happened to Jazz from the 1960's until today. The Jazz Ear is a collection of interviews with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Ornette Coleman and a lot of other greats, all quite recent, and where Ratliff listens to records with the musicians and they discuss what they're listening to. Worth looking into if you're interested in the musicians, but not essential, at least to me.

I also read On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language by Ilan Stavans, which I picked up because I'm interested in languages and the nature of being a foreigner/outsider. I think that if you know Ilan Stavans from somewhere else (like, you've read other works by him), then you would find this quite engaging as it's quite personal and thoughtful. However, I was more specifically interested in the language aspect and it wasn't quite as rich in this as area as I thought from the reviews I had read. So, a kind of one off.

I also tried reading John Cheever's Wapshot Chronicle as I like Cheever's short stories a lot and I'm originally from Massachusetts, where the novel is set. Somehow I couldn't get into it - maybe I found myself lost picking up a book that didn't mention Miles or Bird?! Curiously, there was an interesting article about the legacy of Cheever in the Times a few days after I put it down. I read his Collected Stories last year with great pleasure. I think another time, another place and I will try it again.

Lastly, one of my more interesting textbooks I have this semester is World Englishes by Andy Kirkpatrick, a thoughtful and funny scholar of the language. If you're interested in the varieties of the language and the future of the language then this is worth your time, at least as far as textbooks go.

Christopher, I was interested to read your comments about On Borrowed Words because I also have this book (and share your interest in languages and being a foreigner/outsider/immigrant), but haven't read it yet. Since I haven't read anything else by Ilan Stavans, it may be one book I don't have to move up on the TBR pile . . .

Rebecca,

I don't mean to be critical here, but I think you've suggested the correct course for that Ilan Stavans book! Come back to it when you've discovered something else by him and you're curious about his life and his work. Until then...

Please forgive the hopelessly slow reply!

Christopher

I only have a single book to add to my reading diary for 2009 as of this posting! How unfortunate!

That said, I read David Peace's Tokyo Year Zero as I live in Tokyo and always am interested in reading about the city, I remember the book garnering favorable reviews in The Economist and a colleague of mine happened to own the book. So I gave it a go...

I don't read much in the way of mysteries, but this one seemed okay. I felt like I was more excited to finish it then I was devouring it passionately. It paints a really desperate and unpleasant picture of post-war Japan and especially Tokyo, with its hopelessly packed trains and hot, sticky and smelly summers. A lot of people trying to just make it and do anything to get by. I guess I found more in the social commentary than the actual story. Anybody else read it?

That said, I'm going to have more time on my hands in April and I'm looking for a fiction recommendation. I want to read a big book and I want it to be something I can't put down. I'm always partial to reading a classic and I can remember the pleasure I had reading Anna Karenina, Les Miserables (speaking of which anybody ever read Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea? I've always been curious) or Sentimental Education. I was thinking of the recent translation of War and Peace or the Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote, which I've never read. Anybody have any suggestions?

I loved Grossman's translation of Don Quixote.

I love War and Peace and I loved the new Pevear-Volokhonsky translation (this was the third time I read W&P!).

yes, for Toilers of the Sea. It takes a while to get into it as it starts with a long long guide to and history of the island of Guernsey, which has still never been surpassed, but once you get past that it has some incredible writing in it. Highly recommended. Oh, and the modern library edition has some illustrations by Hugo himself. They are worth the price of admission alone. Hugo was an incredible artist.

That's impressive, rebecca! I'm supposed to be reading this for the group read but haven't started yet. OK, here goes...if I do 10-20 pp/day I'll be caught up by next month.

Thanks for the feedback! I might have to go with Toilers of the Sea - I've never read it and I recall the pleasure with which I read Les Miserables. The long intro, done right, could be very fascinating I suppose. Also - I'll be doing a bunch of the reading at hot spring and somehow goes together - all of that water!

Not as impressive as it sounds kidzdoc! I first read W&P as a teenager and skipped all the war parts. Then I read it about 7 years ago when a family member was in the hospital and it was soon after 9/11 and I needed an absorbing book that would take me away from the time in which I was living and that I could take to the hospital (I picked the edition based on which was the lightest to carry around). That time, I loved the war scenes and loved the whole book and, as a Pevear -Volokhonsky fan, was eager to read their version when it came out.

Believe me, you'll be able to do more than 10-20 pp per day; if you can read 2666, you'll have no trouble with W&P. (In the P-V version, you can mark the pages with the lists of characters, etc., in case you need to refer back.)

#43 Christopher - I read Tokyo Year Zero as an LT Early Reviewer in Dec 2007. I found it interesting in some ways, but overall it didn't do much for me. I agree with you that the story was secondary to recreating the atmosphere of the time period. The main problem I have with it* was the methods used to create the atmosphere. The repetition and other tricks seemed very forced and transparent.

*er - the main problem in hindsight apparently. That wasn't expressed in my review.

#40, Check out the University of Chicago Press's latest catalog. It has some books on music that might interest you. Alas I can reveal no more because I might violate the rules of The Bibliofile Brother/Sisterhood.

Hey, the resident foreigner/outsider/immigrant here, sticking his head out. I just received my copy of the Ilan Stavans book today, based on your mentioning it, Christopher. Although I have not heard of him before, I think I will read it soon. (I do currently have FIVE books on the go.) But it does sound very good to me.

#51 dchaikin - the truth is, I like to read for atmosphere sometimes, but I guess not exclusively for atmosphere as Tokyo Year Zero didn't work for me in that regard, although it did have atmosphere.

#52 urania1 - will do!

#53 polutropos - although not an immigrant, I have been bouncing around the world for the past few years myself! Always good to have some familiar company in this regard! I wasn't a big fan of On Borrowed Words but I'd love to hear your thoughts. When you get to it please share your ideas!

Finished a couple more books in the past couple of days as I've had some more time on my hands.

Read Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark which came recommended to me from a friend who likes early McCarthy. I do as well and this didn't disappoint, but it seemed so short that just when I began to appreciate its rhythms, it was over.

Also finished Orhan Pamuk's Other Colors, his collection of essays. I very much enjoyed this and quite unexpectedly so. It makes me want to read other collections like this. Anybody have any recommendations? He has a thoughtful and obvious love of books and literature and I really appreciate that. I thought his essays on books were the best, especially essays like "Nine Notes on Book Covers". I've spent some time in Istanbul, so also very much appreciate his writing on that wonderful city.

Working on finishing How Fiction Works by James Wood, Embracing Defeat , a history of Postwar Japan by John Dower, and slowly working my way through Borges Collected Fictions and The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry.

Main goal for my April reading is, in a spring cleaning like fashion, reading books I know that I don't intend to keep and making some space on my bookshelf for some new ones.

Wow, how time flies! I haven't updated this in a couple of weeks.
At the moment, being on vacation, I'm not commuting to work so I'm reading a bunch of 'big books' concurrently - space, public and private, is at such a premium in Tokyo that it's really challenging to read a big book on the train.

So I'm reading Dickens' David Copperfield which I've never read, but am finding great joy and pleasure in doing so, and I feel like it brings back memories of reading some of the classics as a younger person. I'm also working on Borges Collected Fictions, a collection of Whitney Balliett's jazz essays from the New Yorker and the previously mentioned Embracing Defeat about postwar Japan.

I meant to get involved with the 'Memorizing Poetry' thread, but somehow I haven't found the motivation just yet. A few more things checked off the 'to do' list and I might make a go of it.

I've decided to inaugurate an annual special reading project, and it looks to be Borges for 2009. I'm in possession of the Collected Fictions as well as Selected Non-Fictions and Selected Poems. I intend to add Seven Nights, Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations, Borges: A Life and perhaps The Invention of Morel and some Argentine history like Felix Luna's A Short History of the Argentine. If anyone has any recommendations for books in English about Argentina, Buenos Aires or connected to Borges I'd love to hear them!

>Christopher, you might want to check depressaholic's thread as he has been on a Argentinian spree for six weeks or more. But perhaps you already know this?

Great idea to do Borges! As a fan of spurious knowledge and imaginary libraries, I love Borges.

I'm so glad that you're enjoying Copperfield. Any thoughts on the James Wood?

#57 avaland - thanks for the tip. Following it led me to the Reading Globally's discussion about Argentina. Lots of good tips and ideas for reading.

#58 tomcatMurr - One reason I decided to focus my energies on Borges, besides received his Collected Fictions as a gift, is that as much as I have always appreciated his imagination and breadth of knowledge, he has always challenged me and I really want to 'get' him. So, I'm reading the short stories slowly and taking notes, and will then be saturated in other Borges works when a friend comes to visit in May.

Copperfield is great fun and just...takes me to a different time in my (reading) life. Like being at my parent's house and picking up a book by chance and becoming engrossed. I liked the Wood book and it made me think a bit. His opinions are reinforced with his examples, and he's good at arguing what he likes. Not sure what else I can say about it, really!

#57 avaland - thanks for the tip. Following it led me to the Reading Globally's discussion about Argentina. Lots of good tips and ideas for reading.

#58 tomcatMurr - One reason I decided to focus my energies on Borges, besides received his Collected Fictions as a gift, is that as much as I have always appreciated his imagination and breadth of knowledge, he has always challenged me and I really want to 'get' him. So, I'm reading the short stories slowly and taking notes, and will then be saturated in other Borges works when a friend comes to visit in May.

Copperfield is great fun and just...takes me to a different time in my (reading) life. Like being at my parent's house and picking up a book by chance and becoming engrossed. I liked the Wood book and it made me think a bit. His opinions are reinforced with his examples, and he's good at arguing what he likes. Not sure what else I can say about it, really!

A couple of books to add to my list: Cait Murphy's Crazy '08 and Dickens' David Copperfield.

Crazy '08 is about the baseball season of 1908. It got a good review in the NY Times a few years back and I hadn't forgot it. Perhaps because I'm in baseball crazy Japan, or I'm a baseball fan myself, but I decided to give this one a go. While I do enjoy sports, I never read books that are sports related, so to speak, but rather enjoyed this one, and look forward to others. A solid portion of it is looking at American popular and urban culture in at that time. Interesting.

David Copperfield is...David Copperfield. Started reading it as I was hungry for something big and spectacular and 'classic' in a modern sense. Fascinated by the first few hundred pages but wearied a little bit and didn't do a great reading of some of the middle pages. It was written in serial form for newspaper, if I'm not mistaken, and sometimes I could feel a certain unnatural pacing. That said, I'm not sure if I would read any other Dickens, but it was fun to pick up and explore.

At this time, I think I'm going to take a break on my TBR list and work on my Japanese. I'm going to try reading some fiction in Japanese which will probably be incredibly slow, but I've never really had the experience of reading fiction in another language, so now is as good a time as any. I suspect it will be rough going at first, but then get better? I might try to read some short stories by Murakami Haruki.

(Speaking of which, I was at a bookstore the other night here in Tokyo, looking for Murakami and discovered that novels in Japan are organized by publisher, then author. In other words, one author can be spread out all over the place. This struck me as odd, but perhaps I haven't quite figured it out yet? That said, book stores in Japan are a real pleasure, and more so as my understanding of the language increases.)

(Also, all novels/most books here are the same identical size, so there is a real market for book covers, etc. and certain harmony to book shelves. Japanese friends always ask me why a.) book sizes in English are so variable and b.) why so big. Anybody have any input? For perspective, a typically volume of, say, Dostoevsky in Japanese is a few pocket-sized volumes.)

Anybody have experience reading in another language? Any thoughts? I have always had a resistance to giving up my accelerated English pace, but have the motivation at the moment, so am giving it a go!

Crazy '08 sounds interesting. Hmm...although I wasn't around for it, I would have said that 1955 was the greatest year in baseball history, as the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the hated Yankees in the World Series. The Cubs won the World Series in 1908, the last time they have won it, of course, so that alone would make it a memorable year.

That reminds me; one of these days I have to read The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn's masterpiece about the Dodgers in the 1950s.

Thanks for mentioning that one, kidzdoc. One baseball book a year is about my limit for now, but someday indeed. I learned in Crazy '08 that the name 'Dodgers' came from people who would run across the street and 'dodge' the abundance of streetcars in Brooklyn. Etymology like that is always interesting to me.

Wow, it's been a month already?! I actually haven't read much of anything since then as I started reading a collection of Haruki Murakami stories in Japanese which is a SLOW but rewarding process, a friend visited from abroad, I started a new job, started a new semester of grad school, etc.

That said, I couldn't take it anymore (not reading any fiction!), and amidst everything else, I'm trying to sneak in some fiction, so I've started reading Mario Vargas Llosa's "The Bad Girl". Anybody else read it? I read a non-fiction work of his on Victor Hugo a couple of years back, but none of his fiction. As I have so little time at the moment, I am being rather picky about what I read; no time for anything mediocre at the moment! I read the first couple of chapters today and it seems intriguing!

I haven't read The Bad Girl yet, Christopher. However, I'm planning to read it later this summer, along with several other Llosa novels I have in my collection. I finally found Conversation in the Cathedral, which lriley praised most highly, and I've had Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The War of the End of the World, and The Way to Paradise for quite awhile. I'll probably start on Conversation in the Cathedral next week.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts on The Bad Girl.

Edited to correct touchstones.

Maybe this will inspire me to read some of the many LLosa novels I own but haven't read. I rediscovered them when the subject came up here on LT a month or more ago and I realized I'd somehow missed entering them into my catalog.

Hmm...Llosa group read?

Are you planning to read 1Q84, Christopher?

#65 & 67 kidzdoc: i'm enjoying The Bad Girl thus far. I'll do a more thorough posting when I've finished. As for Murakami, I'm reading the short stories so slowly that I can't imagine tackling a novel right now in Japanese. That said, when I casually look at his writing in Japanese, it seems approachable for my level, but when I get down to it I find it very slow. Some day, perhaps! He has a lot more non-fiction, by the way, that hasn't been translated, including two volumes of essays on jazz. That sounds like something I could get excited about!

#66 Rebeccanyc If you do, I'd like to hear more about his work.

Maybe you should work on translating the jazz essays into English,Christopher, and then flog them to the Dalkey Archive Press or something. :)

The only LLosa I have read is The War of the End of the World which was excellent. I humbly submit this review I wrote of it. I'd like to read more of his stuff.

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2007/04/war-of-end-of-world-mario-vargas-losa.htm...

Inspired by this thread, I'm considering reading Conversation in the Cathedral when I finish what I'm currently reading (Bosnian Chronicle, which is great, but a slow read), even though that would interfere with some other books I planned to read next. The problem for me is that I have a hard-cover (remaindered) copy of it and it is probably too big/heavy to be my subway read, which means that I will read it oh-so-slowly at home.

I have the same problem with The War of the End of the World, which is the other LLosa I'd like to read first. Thanks for the reviw, Murr.

It sounds like the books being mentioned here are all more significant in the Vargas LLosa oeuvre than The Bad Girl, but that's good news as I quite enjoyed The Bad Girl and will have to seek out some his other works. I won't offer any detailed review of this work, but I have to say that I was sucked into the world of this novel, which is often just what I want from a book, and what I needed at this time, and loved following this relationship over the course of many years. Yes, recommended.

Okay, going in a totally different direction, I'll be in Mumbai for a couple of weeks at the end of the year and I'd like to immerse myself in a Mumbai/India theme read between now and then. I'll be busy on an off between now and then, so it's not clear how much reading I can do, but I'd love to hear some recommendations, particularly as for fiction. I ready Midnight's Children a couple of years back and loved it. Any ideas?

I've just posted my review for Conversation in the Cathedral, which is the best book I've read this year.

One book I have, but haven't read yet, is Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. Oh, forget that; I see that it is already in your library. I liked Animal's People by Indra Sinha and The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, along with Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, a historical novel that takes place during the Opium Wars. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra is on my summer reading list.

I can highly recommend Sacred Games. It is a fascinating and largely successful attempt to encompass the many worlds and people of Mumbai through the lens of an organized crime boss. Don't be put off by all the Indian slang, much of which is untranslated despite the glossary at the end, or by the length. At some point in the middle, I did think that Chandra was trying too hard to do too much, but in the end I loved it.

Other people will probably recommend Shantaram, a book about the Mumbai underworld that I found tremendously pompous and self-serving, but which is much admired by many others here on LT.

One of my favorite books of all time is Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy; I loved it so much I started reading more slowly as I got near the end because I didn't want to leave the characters and the world Seth created.

For a fictional look at the period of British colonialism, I can recommend both The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell and Paul Scott's Raj Quartet.

I bought a copy of Aravind Adiga's latest book, Between the Assassinations from my local Borders this afternoon. I didn't realize it had been published yet, and it actually was published here in the US before the date it will be released in the UK! According to the jacket cover, it is about the struggle between and within different classes in a coastal town in SW India. The Dallas Morning News has a review of the book here.

Adiga lives in Mumbai, BTW.

Forgive me for not responding to these recommendations before! I have been hopelessly busy between teaching and being a graduate student, but I am happy to say that my semester of teaching finishes tomorrow, so I'll have some time on my hands to do some reading.

@72 I read Maximum City a few years ago and loved it - I dare say I wish there was a book like that for every city! In fact, I am in the mood for reading that kind of non-fiction at the moment, and I need to see what I can come up with to fulfill that craving.

@73 Thanks for the recommendations for Sacred Games and A Suitable Boy. A friend visiting me brought both of them for me from home, and I'll do my best to read both before visiting Mumbai. I seem to be really hit or miss with novels recently, but I tend to be more successful with larger works because, in a sense, I am forced to take the time to get into them.

I recently read Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence and The Moor's Last Sigh. I think of Salman Rushdie as one of my favorite authors, but the truth is that is based on my experience with Midnight's Children and not much else. Neither of these two really worked for me, but I still appreciate his language, sense of humor and vision of the world. Somehow, I can't get interested in the stories.

I will second the recommendation of A Suitable Boy. I was disappointed when it ended and thought it should have been longer.

I am rereading it at the moment. It's wonderful. Really wonderful.

Well, here I am, a solid 450 pages or so into A Suitable Boy and I can already tell that I don't want it to end. What a pleasure it is to read! One thing that I find I really enjoy is the pacing: not too fast or slow, so to speak, but just right. I tend to get some of the characters mixed up, but I'm sure that will remedy itself with time. Anybody read anything else by Vikram Seth? I might have to search out some of his other books as at my current pace I will be finished with A Suitable Boy by the end of the month.

At the same time, I am reading India: A History, which is a well-regarded book, but I read it with little pleasure and feel that I am hardly reading it all! I guess I'm not in the mood for that kind of non-fiction at the moment.

From your comments and Murr's review, I think that A Suitable Boy will be my next book purchase. I'm just not sure when I'll get to it, though, probably not before the end of the year. I'm glad that you're enjoying it!

Chris, although you will have to fill the next few years with other books, you will be able to read Vikram Seth's sequel, "A Suitable Girl"... in 2013 (he's calling it a "jump sequel" because it will start in present day and not in the 50s where The Suitable Boy leaves off...

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/tags/Vikram+Seth/defa...

It's great, kidzdoc. I seem to do well with longer novels because it often takes me time - pages, I mean - to really get involved with a book, and often I read the 200-300 page variety too quickly. A big book like this basically forces me to commit! Sounds like a good early 2010 book to me...

@80 avaland - Thanks for sharing! That's something to look forward to indeed! I don't mind having to "fill the next few years with other books", by the way. In fact, I look forward to it!

Right; that's exactly what I was thinking, a good read to end 2009 or start 2010 with. The next couple of months will be mainly taken up with getting through the Booker Prize longlist, much of the remainder of the Orange Prize longlist, and the other books I brought back from London. The Satanic Verses is high on the list of books I want to read this year, especially since I saw Hanif Kureishi's play The Black Album at the National Theatre while I was there, which used Rushdie's book as a major theme (I'll read the book the play was based on, as well). I'd also like to tackle one big biography a month, especially the recent Naipaul and Borges biographies, and the Fanon biography from a couple of years ago.

Oh, I picked up four jazz albums at Ray's Jazz in Foyles, which I'll listen to and review on the Club Read Jazz thread. I finally made it to Ronnie Scott's jazz club in Soho last Tuesday, which was having a two week Brit Jazz festival to commemorate the club's 50th anniversary, which I'll also report on. One of the two groups, a British version of the early 60s Jazz Messengers, that played that night was fantastic, and it has a new CD out, which hopefully is available on iTunes or elsewhere.

Just jumping on the A Suitable Boy bandwagon. It is one of my all-time favorite books and, as I've said before, I started reading more slowly when I got near the end because I didn't want to leave the characters and their world.

I'm so excited about A Suitable Girl, and I'm going to hold off on rereading A Suitable Boy until just before it comes out.

As for other books by Vikram Seth (#78), I've read most of what he's written, and what's fascinating is that each of his books is so different. My next favorite, after A Suitable Boy, is Two Lives which is a fascinating memoir of Seth's great-aunt and -uncle, with whom he lived for a while in London, and the intersection of their lives with some of the major horrors of the 20th century. Then comes The Golden Gate, a novel in verse, which I unexpectedly really enjoyed. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Equal Music, but it may be that if I were more musically knowledgeable I would have enjoyed.

#78 I just finished with India: A History, and also found it difficult to get engrossed in. Part of it, I think, is that it is just so overwhelming, since it is not as if India has been one united continent, it is really a history of several regions that overlaps and reconfigure. However, I am now reading Sowing the Wind by Keay, and I am really enjoying it. I am thinking that Keay is at his best when he can tell stories about various characters, and there is a lot of that in this book which is about the Middle East since about 1900. It reminds me of the best part of what I liked about the Spice Trade by Keay.

>85 solla: solla,

I must agree with you about India: A History. It reads more like a rather boring world civ textbook than anything else.

How disappointing that a country so rich and fascinating historically has such a boring book to introduce it.
Christopher, I'm glad you are enjoying ASB!

@84 I'm interested in all of those books and will try to find some used copies in Tokyo. I am enjoying A Suitable Boy sufficiently to make me want to hunt down anything else by him! Somehow I guess my being a dedicated jazz fan doesn't sound like it makes me "musically knowledgeable" however.

@85 Interesting to hear about Sowing the Wind. When I read the comments about India: A History on Amazon, I feel like there are a lot of comments about how "this is history well-written", etc. but I simply can't get into this book. Too much information? Maybe. But I read a chapter and find my mind wandering. I think I am encountering so much non-fiction recently as a student and teacher that for my pleasure reading my mind simply won't accept it!

@86 I love to read a good history book, but when I strike out with history books I can usually describe those books as "like a rather boring world civ textbook". Well said!

@87 Loving it, tomcatMurr! By the way, is there a book that you would recommend on Taiwan? I am always interested in books that introduce me to countries and I'm not sure if I've ever read one from/concerning Taiwan. Most of my knowledge about Taiwan has come through the movies of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-Liang and Edward Yang, making Taiwan one of my favorite film cultures in the world.

Oh yes, Taiwan has a vibrant film culture, with two international film festivals a year! Don't forget that the great Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Lust and Caution) is Taiwanese. His career continues to evolve in most interesting ways.

A very good recent Taiwanese movie you should check out is called Help me Eros, by Lee Kang Sheng. you will know him as the lead actor in most of Tsai Ming Liang's movies. This is his second film behind the camera, written and directed by him. Marujiana addiction, love between a dealer and betel nut girl, the urban underclass of the southern port city of Kaoshiung, once one of the most important container ports in the world, sex, weird sex, and even weirder sex, a searing indictment of today's consumerist culture, with a very wry sense of visual humour and a Dostoevskyan central character. It's the most original film I've seen this century.

The directors you mention are also excellent. Tsai Ming Liang really pushes the borders of the audience's tolerance to endure time with his tales of modern urban life. If you want a view of Taipei in the 1980s and 1990s, look no further. Hou Hsiao-Hsien examines Taiwan's colonised past with a sympathetic eye. you should also check out Hung Chih-Yu as well.

About literature, unfortunately there is not much outside of the very dry academic textbooks on Taiwan, or on socio-poliical issues. Fiction is best represented by:

Crystal Boys
Notes of a Desperate Man (This touchstone doesn't seem to work, and I can't remember the exact name of the writer, so I'll have to get back to you on that one.)

There is a vibrant literary scene here, but it's all in Chinese. They have an international poetry festival. a few years ago Derek Walcott was the invited guest speaker and panellist. The day he arrived a ferocious typhoon hit the city, and he spent the time holed up by himself in his hotel as everything was shut down.

I won't hijack your thread any longer. Apologies.

@89 tomcatMurr - Hijack?! Thanks for your great posting! I forgot about Ang Lee - the films by him I have seen escape your list: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman and Brokeback Mountain. I have The Ice Storm but have yet to watch it. Know the town it was set/filmed in intimately so I really should watch it.

As luck would have it, I have a copy of Help Me Eros, but have yet to watch it. I know exactly who Lee Kang Sheng is and think he's great! I have hesitated to watch it, but I'll try to get around to it by the end of the month.

Yes, Tsai Ming Liang's films can be slow at times, but I love the world of Taipei that he depicts. I think "What Time is it There?" was the first of many, many films from Asia I saw, perhaps ten years ago, and really opened up a world of cinema to me, so his work represents something special for me. Also, saw The Wayward Cloud in a cinema, an experience not to be forgotten (although not a film I really care for!). Not familiar with Hung Chih-Yu, but will do some research.

Thanks for the rest of your feedback on Taiwan. Shame there isn't more translated. Anyways, I hope to make it there in 2010! When a cheap flight comes up and I have a few days off I'd love to wander around Taipei...

So I finished A Suitable Boy. This is the most engaging novel I've read this year. Thanks to those who recommended it to me on this LT, as I think that's how I first decided to get it in connection with my forthcoming trip to Mumbai.

The characters and story lines really develop at a nice pace over the course of this nearly 1500 page book. I happen to be a Tolstoy fan, and this novel reminded me of the pleasure I felt reading and being absorbed in Anna Karanina.

As others have expressed, it's a book that one doesn't really want to end, and the length of the book shouldn't discourage one from wanting to read it, unless, perhaps you spend a lot of time on public transportation as it's not a book I wanted to take with me when I went out!

I'm going to take a few days off from reading any fiction just to let my mind absorb what I've read.

Hi Christopher,
I'm glad you enjoyed ASB. The similarity with AK is absolutely right, imv. And even though I finished it a while ago, I am still thinking about Mrs Mehra and her cut out roses!

Hope you have a great trip to Mumbai!

@92 tomcatMurr, I hope I have a great trip to Mumbai as well! It's not for another three months, er, almost to the day. I was just in Seoul for just under a week and, while I love Korean food, my stomach was unwilling to process some of the spices. We'll see how it holds up in Mumbai!

I recently took a short trip to Seoul, after years of teaching Korean students, an interest in Korean cinema and a love of Korean food.

While I was there, I was hipped to a nice book shop called Seoul Selection and recommended to check out a series of books called The Portable Library of Korean Literature. These are well designed novellas or collections of short stories by prominent Korean writers in translation. When I used to teach Korean students, I would ask them about Korean writers, but found very few examples in translation available in the U.S., so this was a nice surprise, particularly as each volume was about $4. I picked up the following four:



I've already had the fleeting pleasure (81 pages) of reading The Wings and look forward to reading the rest of the series to wrap up my experience with visiting Seoul.

On the plane I read C.L.R. James' Beyond a Boundary, which I believe was recommended by kizdoc (maybe?!). Because of the cricket and colonial angles, it's part of my Mumbai theme read. I think I was perhaps distracted by the references to cricket - I really know too little about this game. In fact, more important than the cricket details were the many references to famous people who I was unfamiliar with that ultimately made the book hard going for me.

Finally, I also had the distinct pleasure of reading India After Gandhi a few weeks back. In contrast with Keay's India: A History, this book was incredibly interesting, easy to pick up and well-written. Highly recommended for anyone with a casual interest in modern history, and a great opportunity to learn about people like Nehru.

Nice work, Christopher! You're right, I had mentioned Beyond a Boundary when I read the C.L.R. James: Cricket's Philosopher King earlier this year, although I haven't read his cricket book yet. I'm certain that I have India After Gandhi, but my LT library says otherwise.

Thanks for the tip on India After Gandhi. I am in the middle of A Suitable Boy right now, recommended by you and others. I may be ready for more background when I finish in a week or two. It certainly is engrossing. I find myself looking forward to chapters that focus on Lata the most.

solla, I found each thread/story of A Suitable Boy engrossing, of course Lata's, but I also remember finding a soft spot for Haresh Khanna or when the history of modern India intrudes in the form of elections or interfaith violence. If you're interested in more about modern India, then by all means check out India After Gandhi. It's a meaty book itself, but I found it quite readable. If you're interested in more fiction like A Suitable Boy, well, turn to the master: Tolstoy. Thanks for your comment!

I did read War and Peace in high school school - Pierre was my favorite character. Never read Anna Karenina, though. I agree with you about the history coming in - I am just at the point where the high court has decided that the Zamindar bill didn't violate the constitution. I'm interested in how that plays out when it gets into implementation - whether the manipulation of the records about who has worked the land will succeed, for instance. About Haresh, I don't know, perhaps he will seem more endearing later. I find him likable enough - introducing the boy math wonder to the math professor was good - but I wouldn't want to marry him and don't want Lata to do so either.

If I remember, Pierre is the voice of Tolstoy or Tolstoy-like character in War and Peace while in Anna Karenina it's Levin who fills that role. I was enthralled with Anna Karenina, while distracted by other matters when I read War and Peace, so I'd like to read it again especially as there's a newer translation available than what I read at the time. When you're ready for something of a similar depth and richness, try Anna Karenina perhaps.

Enjoy the rest of A Suitable Boy!

Wow, I haven't posted since September? Time flies! I'm currently a graduate student and have been extremely busy with my program but things are slowing down a bit this month.

Anyways, it's been difficult for me to pick up anything since reading A Suitable Boy. I tried to read some other books, including July's People by Nadine Gordimer but couldn't seem to focus on it at all or get emotionally involved. For a while I wasn't reading any fiction at all until I picked up Let the Great World Spin which I've found easy to pick up and hard to put down, fortunately - I needed something to reignite me with fiction. I wonder about his McCann's other books.

Off to Mumbai in less than three weeks. Might try to sneak in some more fiction concerning that city before I go - three novels by Rohinton Mistry still await me on my bookshelf. I also grabbed a few more by Seth - An Equal Music and The Golden Gate that I saw at a used book shop.

Christopher

Both War and Peace and Anna Karenina are definitely worth rereads; in particular, since I read both originally as a teenager, I felt I got a lot more out of them when I reread them in my 40s.

As for other books by Vikram Seth, the one I liked the best after A Suitable Boy (which is one of my all-time favorite books) is Two Lives, his memoir about his great-aunt and -uncle and their journeys through some of the horrors of the 20th century. I also liked The Golden Gate much more than I thought I would, but I didn't enjoy An Equal Music.

A great, although flawed, book about contemporary Mumbai is Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, a lagely successful attempt to portray the diversity and immensity of Mumbai through the lens of a gangster.

@101 Rebeccanyc, I'd love to read Two Lives and have heard other people say that An Equal Music didn't live up to their expectations. However, I took what the used book store had! I read, say, 2/3rds of Sacred Games this summer but just couldn't get into it. There was a lot I liked about it, but reading it right after A Suitable Boy...I don't know, it didn't work for me.

I had a hard time with Sacred Games last year, too. I might give it a go again in the next year or two. I'll be interested to get your take on The Golden Gate; I forgot to pick it up when I was in San Francisco in October.

Have a great trip to Mumbai! A good friend of mine is there now.

I did almost give up on Sacred Games myself, round about the middle or so, but ended up being glad I stuck with it. That's why I say I feel it is flawed -- I feel Chandra was trying to do so much with the book and it just wasn't possible but I would rather read an ambitious author who doesn't achieve all he wanted to than one who just stuck with what was safe. Of course, it is completely different from A Suitable Boy. Have a great trip.

oh well, now I'm wondering whether to bother with Sacred Games. It does look intriguing, and I have glanced thorugh it several times in the bookstore but not taken the plunge.

About An Equal Music, I wonder how much the ambivalence we feel towards it is due to Seth's writing about music? It's rare for a novelist to get music right, in my experience.

I'm surprised that a lot of people have something to say about Sacred Games. Frankly, I don't think I would have read had I not been going to Mumbai, whereas A Suitable Boy seems to have a more universal appeal. Maybe I should have stuck with it, maybe not.

That's a good point, tomcatMurr. I've actually never heard a good word spoken of An Equal Music, but after A Suitable Boy I'm certainly willing to give it a go. It's rather short as well.

In my case with An Equal Music it was because there was too much about music for a nonmusician like me. If I had understood the music material better, I might have understood its connection to the plot and characters better and enjoyed it more. I do admire Seth for trying different kinds of novels instead of sticking to the tried and true.

yes, he certainly has a wide range of topics. And of course we have a sequel to ASB to look forward to.

I know. As much as I admire him for trying new ideas, I am nonetheless deliriously happy that he is writing the sequel to ASB and also that I now will have an excuse to reread ASB shortly before the sequel comes out.

The last thing I read in 2009 was a bit of an impulse read. I was already well supplied with books for my flight to Mumbai, but in case the fiction, non-fiction and multiple magazines didn't keep me interested, I wanted to grab one more book, so I visited a used book shop which was having a sale specifically to grab something impulsively. What did I end up with? David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster which turned out to be a fantastic choice considering I had never read him before, but I read it from cover to cover on the plane and was laughing out loud quite a few times. What a nice discovery!

My favorite books of 2009 were Seth's A Suitable Boy, Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful and Bolano's 2666. I really liked Stanley Crouch's essays on jazz in Considering Genius and India After Gandhi was a very readable history of post-Independence India.

We'll look forward to hearing about your trip on your 2010 thread!