Thursday, January 3, 2008

Reading Update 1/3/07

Been having trouble getting into anything lately. I've sort of been dabbling in a bunch of different books, but not much has really grabbed me. I'm about halfway through The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich. I always expect to like her books more than I actually do. In fact, I don't think I've been able to get through one yet. I like her writing and find it quite beautiful at moments, but something about her characters never quite grabs me. I'm also partway through a young adult novel called Feed. Can't remember the author on that one, but it won a big kid's lit award a few years back. And partway through Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is interesting, but a slow read for me. And obviously, since it's nonfiction, not great when I just feel like getting lost in a good story. Here's what I have finished recently:

Dealing with Dragons -- Patricia Wrede
Cute young adult fantasy lit. I would have loved this book as a kid, but it didn't come out till I was well into high school. A friend here at work recommended it, since she loved it as a kid, so I checked it out.

Dry -- Augusten Burroughs
Randomly picked this one up at work. It was abandoned by a coworker when he left, and I was bored and started reading, not expecting much. But it grabbed me immediately. Think James Frey, only much less self-aggrandizing than A Million Little Pieces. I read almost the whole thing while waiting at the airport and then on my flight to Portland for Christmas.

Running with Scissors -- Augusten Burroughs
Ugh. This Burroughs book, on the other hand, was pretty atrocious. I can't believe it got all kidns of positive attention a few years ago. The family in the story was just disturbing and reprehensible and the book wasn't even remotely funny, though that's the hype it got. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. I'm so glad I read Dry first, even though it's techically a sequel to this book. Otherwise, I never would have picked it up at all. I can't believe I spent money on this book.

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