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What I've been reading
1. Dave Eggers, What is the What. Despite its preciousness, I quite liked A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Sadly this quasi-fictional tale of a Sudanese refugee reveals that most contemporary writers are lightweights, pure and simple.
2. Gore Vidal, Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir. I loved Palimpset, volume 1, but this follow-up is junk. Julian is his best book, but overall he has more misses than hits.
3. Othello. I'll teach this in my spring Law and Literature class. I read Shakespeare as despising the Moor for turning his back on his natural Muslim allies and fighting them in Cyprus. In a strange way Othello deserves some of the bad treatment he receives -- why should anyone trust him?
4. The new Stephen Dubner book...I am not reading it yet, but I don't want to be slow with the news. Discover the other Dubner.
5. Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic. This is from the guy who brought us Everything Bad is Good for You, except it turns out that cholera isn't good for you, it is bad for you. A brisk and readable story of public health issues in Victorian London.
6. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold [Crónica de una muerte anunciada]. I regard One Hundred Years of Solitude as a good but overrated book; this slim volume may well be his most exciting fiction and it is clearly the most humorous. I'm also fond on his non-fiction book about the kidnapping and volume one of his memoirs, plus of course the short stories; that is what he will be known for.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 8, 2006 at 09:59 PM in Books | Permalink
Comments
When you say "reading" do you mean that in the sense that you read every page? Or do you scan the book? Spending 20-30 minutes on one?
I take it that you have a full-time job? at a University? With significant responsibilities in the nurturing of human learning and youth? I am astonished that anyone would have the time (put aside the interest) to read so many books cover-to-cover. Do you truly read them all? Or is "reading" simply a manner of speaking?
My own conclusion, after having read many, many books over many years is that most books would be better if they were simply long essays. That is especially true for the average person like me who is interested in a great many things but "not that interested" to read 300 pages.
Unfortunately the dynamics of publishing favor the puffed-up book to the sleek essay.
Posted by: David Sucher at Nov 9, 2006 8:54:44 AM
I *said* I hadn't read the Dubner. The Eggers I won't finish or even get halfway.
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Nov 9, 2006 9:52:19 AM
You extrapolate the faults plaguing Eggers to most modern writers. I wholeheartedly agree. But on Othello, I cannot agree with you. What evidence is there to suggest that retributive justice undergirds the action of the play? If we assume that it does, then Iago's evil shrinks in proportion. On your reading, Iago is the servant of cosmic justice, an unconscious agent working to restore some moral balance. Whereas I have always seen Iago's motivations as an opaque abyss, immune to scrutiny. He succeeds as a character when the engine pushing him is unintelligible but one not without method. There is method to his madness. But what is it? Certainly not justice.
Posted by: Rue Des Quatre Vents at Nov 9, 2006 10:19:55 AM
Just curious, why leave out The Autumn of the Patriarch? Love anything Marquez, but find it translates very poorly into English.
Posted by: sd at Nov 9, 2006 10:49:59 AM
Skepticism about reading? Yikes. I've been keeping a log of every book that I've read since early 1994. I've been averaging about 46 books per year (median 51, max 74, min 27) Being able to commute by public transportation seems to be the biggest influence on the variability (the year of the highest total, I was spending 2-4 hours on trains, the year of the lowest total, I was walking to work). And quite frankly, there are people whose reading patterns put me to shame.
Posted by: don Hosek at Nov 9, 2006 12:59:59 PM
>Sadly this quasi-fictional tale of a Sudanese refugee reveals that most contemporary writers are lightweights, pure and simple.
It is possible that Egger's quasi-fictional tale of a Sudanese refugee reveals that one contemporary writer is a lightweight, pure and simple. It is unlikely to reveal that most contemporary fiction writers are lightweights; especially since Egger's fiction is read because he had written an enjoyable and highly popular non-fiction book.
Posted by: joeo at Nov 9, 2006 2:41:58 PM
Tyler Cowen,
Just out of curiosity, how fast do you read, words-per-minute? Seriously, do you have any reading tips for
us laypeople. Professors are supposed to be exceptionally skilled readers (better meta-cognitive
approaches.) How are you able to move through all these works so quickly?
Posted by: gilder at Nov 9, 2006 3:27:53 PM
My favorite Garcia-Marquez novel and possibly my favorite first line of any novel: "El día que lo iban a matar, Santiago Nasar se levantó a las 5.30 de la mañana para esperar el buque en que llegaba el obispo." (The day he was to be killed, Santiago Nasar got at up at 5:30 in the morning to meet the boat in which the Bishop was to arrive.)
If you like "Cronica" I think that you will also like "No One Writes the Colonel Anymore" (El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba). It's about a retired military officer waiting, against all logic, for news about his pension. Actually, it's about getting old, like a lot GGM's novels.
Posted by: Roberto Rivera at Nov 10, 2006 6:03:33 PM
Tyler,
What specifically displeases you about the Eggers book, to the extent that you plan to abandon it before the halfway point? I've been looking forward to this book, and yours is the first negative review I've seen.
Posted by: Cap'n at Nov 13, 2006 12:48:34 AM
I'm about done with the Eggers book myself, and find it fascinating and well written. Not lightweight at all. I'd like to know what it is about it that you dislike.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who thinks Eggers has real talent. Sure, his first three books were a bit gimmick-happy, but they always told a good story. This one, however, very different.
Posted by: Gene at Nov 16, 2006 12:33:22 PM
I agree with Gene. I finally got my copy of "What is the What," and, 120 pages in, I have to say this is the last book I would cite as an example of the inferiority of contemporary writers. It's a remarkable book so far. And I say that as someone who wasn't a fan of Eggers' second novel, and who has no opinion about his short stories because I haven't read the collection.
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