Becky's Books –

Still reading Finnegans Wake (page 203) but that will be a long project – until New Years, I think.  Also reading The Saga of Gosta Bering but again – will take a few weeks.I added two books to my current reading:

1.  Life by Keith Richards (and James Fox)  –  listening – read by Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley   2011 – 23+  hours

Memoirs or autobiography  (if that’s still a viable term).  Pretty good so far.  Depp is a very good narrator – I’d likely never read this on my own but a group is reading it.  Up to 1h 26m.

 2.   In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson – 2011 – 390 pages – Kindle

Larson has a good style for this kind of book –  I’ve also read The Devil In White City and really,  really liked that.  I’ve always wanted to read Isaac’s Storm.  This is the story of the American ambassador and his family to Germany in the 1930s.   Up to page 23.

I finished The Kitchen House – I think it was meant to be a powerful book but as far as I could tell it was only a highly emotional one.

Also currently reading Finnegans Wake –  enjoying it if I don’t try to understand it.  It’s written like a drifty Irish dream – stay there and be happy.  I’m up to page 201. I read a few pages a day – a few paragraphs at a time – hope to be finished by 2012. 

This blog is devoted to what I’m reading – current reads are here on the home page – then I’ll put a review into the appropriate month.  I’ll try to keep them numbered but it’s not really important.  Categorized would be nice –  fiction,  non-fiction, detective,  audio, etc.   There’s a better schedule under the “Upcoming” page listed above.

So … right now I’m reading

The Saga of Gosta Berling by Selma Lagerlof – 1898

Largerlof won the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1909.  This book is very strange – it’s like a mythology retold.  Apparently Lagerlof wanted to preserve her memory of the homeplace and the stories her grandmother told her.   The story is about 12 Cavaliers (soldiers) who live free at the estate of the Majoress.  The time frame is 1820s,  the place is central Sweden.  Gosta Berling, a defrocked drunken priest,  is their leader.  They have adventures with the devil, fall in love,  and so on –  I’m only about 1/3 through.  Rereading is very revealing.

I’m also reading (listening to) The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom – 2010 –

This is turning out better than I thought it would – An young Irish orphan becomes the indentured servant of a southern plantation owner.