This is the second of Roth's book's I've read. Well, actually, I didn't read the other one--i listened to the author read it to me as an audio book while on tour in 2006. This was The Plot Against America, which i thought was quite good.
I picked up The Human Stain at Baltimore Book Thing and started it last week, but in typical Roth style--the story never stops...it's as though he can't take a breath. There's no way to stop reading the story, because i felt as though i was constantly being pounded by the next thing. This is how i read this book: as though i was yelling at myself, through a loud, riotous storm: "Whatever you do, don't stop reading!!!"
I would force myself to a stopping point and finally take a breath. Honestly, I felt as though I were holding it through whole sections. The story is interesting and good--the characters well developed and sympathetic. (Except for the French professor--she was tiresome.) But as I sit here, with only 20 pages to go--and actual work to do today, I realized: I have to stop. I can read the rest during lunch!! But then I wondered--why...why am I so enjoying just getting through this one? I think it's because reading is a true passion and I've been substituting it with movies for the past few years. I abandoned reading because I had read a series of books that were just so disappointing and I got turned off from the act of it.
I want to be turned back on. I used to read like a crazy person. Recommend your favorite book to me. This is reading weather, after all.
I would force myself to a stopping point and finally take a breath. Honestly, I felt as though I were holding it through whole sections. The story is interesting and good--the characters well developed and sympathetic. (Except for the French professor--she was tiresome.) But as I sit here, with only 20 pages to go--and actual work to do today, I realized: I have to stop. I can read the rest during lunch!! But then I wondered--why...why am I so enjoying just getting through this one? I think it's because reading is a true passion and I've been substituting it with movies for the past few years. I abandoned reading because I had read a series of books that were just so disappointing and I got turned off from the act of it.
I want to be turned back on. I used to read like a crazy person. Recommend your favorite book to me. This is reading weather, after all.
4 comments:
Roth does unless a tsunami of good prose, doesn't he?
I recommend the "Trilogy" Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, and I Married a Communist (though I don't remember their precise order). They rule, and have the same compelling force, and at least one character in common.
I recommend A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, if you haven't read it already (or, even if you have! :). Having lived in New Orleans, you might enjoy it even more than I, although I rather doubt it...I loved it!
Totally off the subject here: I'd just about give body parts for a chance to play some of your music on my podcast. Are you your record label, or is there someone with your record label I could contact to get permission, if you'd be up for that?
(I first heard you on Baltimore Unsigned's podcast, and loved what I heard. You'd fit in very well with a lot of the other musicians I play.)
You've probably already read it, but one of my all time favorites is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I've actually read it more than once and loved it every time.
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