Avid reader

I have always been an avid reader. Love books. Truth be known, I read too fast but I get carried away and want to get to the end. It would probably be more intelligent to savor the book but it isn’t in my genetic makeup.

Every year, we go down to Jazzfest in New Orleans. Friends of ours are friends with another couple that are always there at the same time as us. Actually, they are hardcore and stay for 2 weeks. More power to them. Each year, I discuss books, music, food, new york, etc. with their friend. This past year, she asked me if I was interested in joining a book group. Sure. Why not.

The best part of this book group that I have met a whole group of people that I am not sure I would have met otherwise. They are incredibly well read and beyond intelligent. Discussions are interesting and certainly thought provoking. They are all voracious readers.

We have chosen some interesting books. The first book we read was called Family Matters which was good but not great. It was about a family in Bombay that is basically dysfunctional and unhappy in their lives. Would not recommend. The second book we read was Middlesex which is one of the best novels I have read in years. The writing is spectacular. Middlesex really depicts how first generation to second generation immigrants come to America, quickly assimilate and become Americans. The book also gives good insight into nature vs. nurture and how the gene pool can show up in weird ways. Highly recommend! The third book we read, which we discussed last night, was Reading Lolita In Tehran. Very interesting but not well edited. The author is an amazing woman and gives the reader insight into how living in Iran during the Revolution affected life on the University. She is a professor of literature and writes about her students reading the classics and relating them to the life they are living. Not top of my list. The next book we will read is When the Emperor was Divine. I will keep you posted.

I did read one book this summer which really stuck with me besides Middlesex. Random Family. An incredible true story of young lives growing up in the Bronx. You wonder how that cycle of hell can ever be broken.

I will keep you posted on the books I read over the next month.

Comments (Archived):

  1. Daniel

    Hello, nice blog 🙂

    I recommend you also Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon. It’s a very good story about a retarded boy, which becomes a genius after a medical experiment. I loved it!

    dan