Sunday, April 27, 2008

A Reading Blog

Blogger has a Blogs of Note section that I like to check out. A few months ago People Reading in San Francisco was on this list. I got to thinking about this blog because a few weeks ago when I was in Utah, some of my work colleagues and I had a lot of conversations revolving around our favorite books, and they both live in San Francisco. One of them gave me a copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. I read it on the plane ride home and couldn’t put it down. It is beautifully written and also extremely disturbing at the same time.

I absolutely love the concept of this blog because I often see people on the tube reading a book and wonder why they made that selection. Is it for school, work, pleasure, or some other reason? I saw a young man reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian on the train in the UK and he was laughing out loud. Whenever I see someone reading something and laughing out loud I take note. It is very rare to find a book that can effectively do that. I saw it in a second hand bookstore before I went to Australia and thought I would give it a go. It was an interesting read but I didn’t laugh out loud. I had suspected the laughing out loud was a feeble attempt to flirt with this young man sitting across the aisle from him, and now I am CERTAIN that is why he was doing it.

Now I’m reading Bill Bryson’s Down Under. I’m not ready to let go of Australia yet. After such a beautiful day yesterday, it is rainy and ugly today. After working for a bit, I plan to spend the day reading. Nothing feels better on a rainy day than a good book.

So what are you reading these days?

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