Reading Diary

Since one of the primary functions of this blog will be to serve as a reading diary, I ought to take a snapshot of where my reading life is this minute. I always have a lot of books of all types in progress.

FICTION

Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her? -- The first of the six-novel Palliser series; I'm about halfway through, and enjoying it thoroughly. The first Trollope I've read in a number of years, since the great Orley Farm (a singleton in Trollope's output, dominated in the public mind by the Palliser and Barsetshire series).

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night -- Past the two-thirds point of this key Fitzgerald novel; my reaction to it is still not settled, and I should have more to say about that.

Alan Moore / Eddie Campbell, From Hell -- I have always been fascinated by the Jack the Ripper case, so I am overdue in reading this celebrated graphic novel version of it. The footnotes are longer than the text, which gives me amusement and pleasure; this is one serious book! I haven't seen the Hughes Brothers' movie version yet (and speaking of the Hughes Brothers, what have they been doing since 2001, when From Hell the movie came out? I've heard of being trapped in development hell, but that is ridiculous...).

Richard Powell, Say It with Bullets -- A revived 1953 crime novel in the great Hard Case Crime paperback series: entertaining and well-written.

NON-FICTION

Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival -- The first critical work (published in 1928) by Kenneth Clark of Civilisation fame. That pioneering television series had such a profound impact on me as an adolescent. Clark is as good a writer as he is a televisual guide.

James Harvey, Movie Love in the Fifties -- Terrific criticism, with sharp insights into directors, actors, and specific films. The chapter on Doris Day would be enough to hook anyone.

Herbert R. Lottman, Jules Verne -- Verne was the first author I took a serious interest in, and the first I read an adult novel by (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the summer after 2nd grade). This is a very entertaining biography.

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City -- This best-seller has a surefire double subject (a World's Fair and a serial killer!) and is quite absorbing; but I think that by historians' standards, Larson cheats (which is to say, makes stuff up, including dialogue and descriptions of people's observations and thought processes) in the interest of providing a novelistic narrative.

Joseph Epstein, In a Cardboard Belt! -- Epstein certainly has the curmudgeonly essayist persona down cold. His maddening flaw -- he's just too damn sure of himself -- is balanced by his great readability. However, I wouldn't want him as a friend.

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August -- Just a few chapters into this classic study of the opening month of World War I; living up to its reputation so far.