I brought back John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy today to the tune of $41.15 in credit. I’d tried to read part of The 42nd Parallel over spring break and my enthusiasm flagged almost immediately. When I told a couple of my school buddies I was planning to read it, their simultaneous question was, “Why?” One had written his masters thesis on Dos Passos’ “camera eye” sections and said it bored him stiff.

So I instead traded out and got the following:

* Iron Council, King Rat, and The Scar by China Miéville
* Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke ($10 for hardcover!)
* The Gold Coast by Kim Stanley Robinson
* The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien

I added then deleted The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, figuring I could always pick it up later if need arises. This list is in addition to the half-dozen other books on the shelf that I’ve been meaning to read, like Mary Renault’s The King Must Die, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami, and Love and Hydrogen by Jim Shepard as well as digging deeper into the ParaSpheres slipstream/fabulist anthology.

I need to be writing a novel this summer and doing a lot of research on New York City, but I also want to keep reading stuff that I’m reasonably sure I’ll really get into with ease. The Miéville and Robinson I read for class hardly seemed like work, I like the Clarke excerpts I’ve read, and I expect to down the Tolkien like a cheap wine.

Ah, there’s nothing quite like an armful of books to induce giddiness.

Current Mood: Happy |
Currently Listening To – Beck – “Midnite Vultures”