Well, it hasn’t been my biggest reading week ever, but it’s been an enjoyable one. In addition to finishing a couple of books, I did a bit of book shopping (what? Chapters-Indigo had an in-store deal where if you spend $40 you get a $10 gift card to spend later, so not taking advantage of it is basically throwing money away. And that’s just irresponsible) and not only added a couple fun things to my shelves, but enjoyed chatting with the excellently bookish folks at my local store.
Just shelved:
I read Hyperbole and a Half in one go – it’s that sort of book, once you start it nothing else exists – and had myself a good and well-needed laugh. I also polished off Haruki Murakami’s recent release, which is actually his first two stories. I haven’t read much of his work yet, so I don’t have much to compare these two stories to, but I am definitely looking forward to reading more of his work. I’m still mulling over my thoughts on this one, but I’ll be writing a full review shortly! Definitely worth picking up if you are a Murakami fan, or if you’re looking for a unique writing style and stories that address some of the uncertainties and foibles of young adulthood.
Reading now:
I’m about a third of the way through this (which is actually more impressive than it sounds as it’s nearly 600 pages long!) but so far…. wow. It’s my first Franzen, but I’ve already started collecting his previous work because I’m so impressed. Purity grabbed me from the off and had me immensely curious to learn more about Pip, a young woman who lived in a squat while working a call center job she hates to pay off the minimum of her mountain of student debt. But the story shifts perspectives, and soon you’re deep in the youth and young adulthood of Andreas, a German who grows up to found a vaguely cultish group of revolutionaries who are currently interested in recruiting Pip. I’ve just started the third section, about Leila, an investigative journalist who is working on a story about a missing or possibly borrowed nuclear warhead.
As you can tell, this is a story with both a lot of breadth and depth. So far basically everything has happened. And I suspect there’s plenty more to come. Not a dull moment, and that’s saying something since normally books of this size lag here and there.
Up next:
I don’t know much about Richard Terfry other than his music. But he’s Canadian, and I have listened to his work a lot over the years, so I felt it my patriotic duty to find out more. And I’ve been hearing so much about Beautiful Bureaucrats that I suspect my curiosity will shortly get the better of me.
In other news:
Bout of Books is on! A great opportunity to catch up on reading goals, or just to tell your family to leave you alone because you’re not “just reading,” you’re readathoning. It goes until August 23rd, so you’ve still got time to get in on the fun. Find out more here. If you’d like to follow my progress, I’m updating my own Bout of Books post here.
My Week On Wednesday is a weekly post in which I share with you what I’ve been reading, what I’m reading next, and any other bookish stuff I enjoyed in the past week! If you’d like to write your own My Week On Wednesday post, or if you’d just like to share your recent reads, feel free to link or chat in the comments!
