Gonna be zipping out of town for a little while in a week or two, need to stock up on some English language books from Page One, Eslite, and the (useless) airport mall, anyone have suggestions on what they’ve been reading lately that’s any good, or warnings of suckiness?
Just a few I’ve read the past few months:
Good
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) - well written and easy to read, quick, fairly intense and graphic, definitely a classic, and Remarque has an interesting backstory on wikipedia
Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) - very easy reads, the guy writes in a very enjoyable common man tone, and he does justice to rabid english football fans and obscure music lovers in these books, not long and time flies when you’re reading them
Gould’s Book of Fish (Flanagan) - Tasmanian author writing about a fictional Tasmanian penal outpost a couple hundred years ago, it takes a little work to read it and it can be raw and nasty like life probably was back then for most people, but it’s a very interesting concept and the story can be witty and insightful
The Mezzanine (Baker) - this guy writes with very strange viewpoints, he also wrote a really good book called Vox that was all about a single phone sex call, and the Fermata about a guy who can stop time and basically does pervy things, this one is nominally about one trip up an escalator in his office, but it is cleverly written about all the things that go on in this guy’s everyday life, and it can be very funny and extremely insightful - and it’s short
Not So Good
J-Pod - somewhat original writing style in the form of e-mails and memos and things between workers in a microsoft like company making video games on the west coast of the USA, but doesn’t come off very funny or witty most of the time, and it can be choppy, not really worth the reading
The Increment (Ignatius) - great reviews from respected newspapers, i think the author is an editor at newsweek or something, its a spy/special forces novel of Iran, sometimes very clever and feels like you’re learning inside info about how things work, but not very rewarding for all the reading