Book notes

Reading

These are the books I am actively reading.

• The Long Fall, Walter Mosley, is next up to be finished now that The Three-Body Problem is done.

Less actively reading

I’m always “reading” a dozen books, some of which I haven’t actually touched in months. These I’ve at least opened at some point in the last month or are collections that I’m working through slowly.

• Bright Magic, by Alfred Döblin
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare
• English Magic, Uschi Gatward
• Complete Short Stories, Graham Greene
• The Stinging Fly, Issue 46, Volume Two
• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, Clint Smith

Recently finished

• I finally sat and read The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, during the day and cruised through the second half of the book in one sitting. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the second book in the series. Physics!
• Being, by Zach Ellis, a very short memoir “that works to put into words what it is to be transgender”, was interesting and eye opening.

On deck

• The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl, is still on the nightstand.
• Lean Inception, by Paulo Caroli, remains on the breakfast/lunch table.

Added to the long list

These are the books I’ve run into over the two weeks and added to some sort of “to one day read” list that is ever growing and will never shrink.

• The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid. I’ve enjoyed every one of his books so far and I’ll pick this up as soon as it is available.
• The Dark Forest, Liu Cixin. I might wait a bit, but I want to read second in The Rememberance of Earth’s Past series.
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick. I have another of Philbrick’s books on my list—Why Read Moby-Dick?—and after watching AMC’s adaptation of The North Water, the desire to read about whaling is high for some reason.
• The Dream Songs, John Berryman.
• Desperate Characters, Paula Fox.