Almost Home
Molly Bloom's soliloquy is all that stands between me and completion of Ulysses. I'll probably finish this over the weekend, then devote a few days to Finnegan's Wake before beginning the summer trashy pulp reading. The question-and-answer structure of the last chapter was irritating most of the way through, but it ended up paying off nicely in the last pages. I loved the hint of Finnegan's Wake as Bloom is falling asleep and his thoughts begin to take the shape of Wake language.
On deck for May and beyond: The Invisibles by Bernhardt J. Hurwood, Nightmare in Pink by John D. MacDonald, and Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson. Then, of course, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I may actually be able to read all this before July, as those first three are all very short, and I read Order of the Phoenix in about 10 days (and that was sharing it with Bobbie!). I've really gotten hooked on MacDonald's Travis McGee books. I think I'll be reading one every year for the next 20 years. They seem like a great way to kick off the summer. Travis is a beach bum who lives on a houseboat that he won in a card game, and he gets more ass than James Bond. He's kind of a cross between Bond and Jim Rockford, maybe. But the books are great: excellent action/sex/adventure stuff, that doesn't hold back on the violence, with great digressions on any topic that comes up, whether it's the hotel industry or the works of Edie Gorme. And he lives in south Florida, so they're especially appealing to me. Nightmare in Pink is the second of the series. I had decided to try starting at the beginning (even though I've allready read 3 of them), but the first book I can only find in a reprint with an ugly-ass cover. Most of them have nifty covers that I believe are by Robert McGinnis. They seem to get better as they go along, so I wanted to get the effect of reading them in order. A Tan and Sandy Silence was the first I read, and I'd reccomend it as an intro to the series.
Beyond that, I have Absolom, Absolom lined up, but I'll probably wait until August or September before venturing that far back into literary land. Have to find a couple fun books before then.
On deck for May and beyond: The Invisibles by Bernhardt J. Hurwood, Nightmare in Pink by John D. MacDonald, and Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson. Then, of course, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I may actually be able to read all this before July, as those first three are all very short, and I read Order of the Phoenix in about 10 days (and that was sharing it with Bobbie!). I've really gotten hooked on MacDonald's Travis McGee books. I think I'll be reading one every year for the next 20 years. They seem like a great way to kick off the summer. Travis is a beach bum who lives on a houseboat that he won in a card game, and he gets more ass than James Bond. He's kind of a cross between Bond and Jim Rockford, maybe. But the books are great: excellent action/sex/adventure stuff, that doesn't hold back on the violence, with great digressions on any topic that comes up, whether it's the hotel industry or the works of Edie Gorme. And he lives in south Florida, so they're especially appealing to me. Nightmare in Pink is the second of the series. I had decided to try starting at the beginning (even though I've allready read 3 of them), but the first book I can only find in a reprint with an ugly-ass cover. Most of them have nifty covers that I believe are by Robert McGinnis. They seem to get better as they go along, so I wanted to get the effect of reading them in order. A Tan and Sandy Silence was the first I read, and I'd reccomend it as an intro to the series.
Beyond that, I have Absolom, Absolom lined up, but I'll probably wait until August or September before venturing that far back into literary land. Have to find a couple fun books before then.
posted by Chris Oliver at 2:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home