March Book Moratorium
When the Mighty Goddess Bast (the name Koosi answers to) jumped onto our bedside table at 4am, loudly toppling a stack of books that missed our head by millimeters, we decided that it was time to put her on a diet. That’s not going to happen. So instead of putting our survival in jeopardy we declared an embargo on book acquisitions. “Acquisitions” as in “review copies included”.
This moratorium on book acquisitions takes effect immediately, and will be lifted only when we finish reading (or abandon from lack of interest) the following books:
Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn – Yes it’s the fourth of the series, but we figure we’ll read the fourth and fifth books then double back to the beginning.
Girl Reading by Katie Ward – We like historical fiction.
Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor – The continuation of the walk the author took across Europe in 1933, from Holland to Constantinople. At the time of the walk the future traveller, writer and war hero was 18 and had just been expelled from school for a terrible offence: holding hands with a local girl. His account of the walk, written decades later, begins in A Time of Gifts, which we devoured in a day. If you ever feel trapped in your life, do yourself an enormous favor and get the NYRB editions of these two books. Patrick Leigh Fermor died last year but he had been working on the third book, which is slated for release next year.
The Old Reliable by P.G. Wodehouse – We’ve mentioned that we write better after we read P.G. Wodehouse so we’ve been hoarding his books.
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse – We like historical fiction especially if they’re thrillers. Recommended by Teddy-Wan Kenobi.
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse
The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino
Boccaccio’s Decameron in a new translation by J.G. Nichols. We like to re-read Boccaccio during the Lenten season when people are required to castigate themselves. Particularly the tale of the well-endowed young man who pretends to be a deaf-mute and goes to work as a gardener at a nunnery…
Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie – We’re going to India.
The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards by Whit Stillman – We’ve just discovered that the movie has been “novelized” by its own author. (Not in photo; ordered recently.)
Violations of this embargo are punishable by…nothing. What are we, nuts? This is just to make us read faster.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 1st, 2012 at 12:44
March 1 is World Book Day. I came across this article while reading The Telegraph this morning. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9113056/World-Book-Day-the-worlds-most-valuable-books.html
March 1st, 2012 at 13:17
I’ve realized that the reason that I could not efficiently deplete my reading backlog all these years was that I subscribe to The Economist. I try to read as much of each weekly issue as I find interesting — which unfortunately for my reading backlog is most of it. And that takes most of the entire week.
Fortunately all the contents of The Economist are so consistently well-written — so perhaps it’s not too bad of a downgrade from reading real literature. But that doesn’t address my original problem.
March 2nd, 2012 at 01:36
Berlin Stories! Christopher Isherwood! A Single Man! Waaaah!
At the present, I’m currently rereading Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (Martin Scorsese, you did a very, very beautiful job. Pity you didn’t get the Oscar for Best Picture.)
March 2nd, 2012 at 12:46
Yes, the Oscar went to the team that does the Austin Powers French equivalents.
March 2nd, 2012 at 16:59
you have to read midnight’s children. it’s a sweeping story of india from independence to separation.
you might be interested to know the novel is being into a movie. i can’t imagine how, unless they’re planning a 10-hour movie.
i’m currently reading blind assassin, the novel for which margaret atwood won the booker. recenly i finished atwood’s robber bride.
March 2nd, 2012 at 23:00
e-ripley, I imagined Dame Judi Dench as the old Iris Chase-Griffen while I was reading The Blind Assassin. Yes, Midnight’s Children is a good read! I think Shame would be a better cinematic vehicle, though.
jessica, enjoy ngang basahin si P.G. Wodehouse! I’ve started reading his books because of you. Di ko matapos-tapos ang If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller ni Italo Calvino.
March 4th, 2012 at 08:07
Oooh! I think I have a copy of Labyrinth I got in my twice-monthly sweep of Booksale-type stores.