(from most recent)

• Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz — I recently saw a Mexican movie that was a reinterpretation of another novel by Mahfouz (Midaq Alley). I had forgotten about him, but when I stumbled across this book in a used book store, I had to grab it. I had no idea what to expect, but he is a Literature Nobel winner, so I suspected it would be all right… In the end, I enjoyed this “soap-opera”-esque tale, a study in multiple perspectives. (Nov. 30, 2006)
• Tragedia en Tres Actos (Three Act Tragedy) by Agatha Christie — Decided it was time for another Spanish read, something not too long, not too complicated. So how about…another English book translated into Spanish? (-; At least it’s fun to read all the characters’ names (sir Bartholomew Strange, “míster” Satterthwaite…) in English, and pronounce the names the Spanish way. Soon to find out — ¿Quién es el asesino (o la asesina)? (Oct. 27, 2006)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad) by Gabriel García Márquez — I’d kept this book waiting, aging it like a rare wine…building delicious anticipation on my part. Well, I finally popped the cork and drank it all in. And it was truly delicious. (Sep. 18, 2006)
• White Noise by Don DeLillo — I’d meant to read this one for a while. Found it an interesting follow-on to Good Omens. Of course, this one is “literary”, and certainly not funny in the same way as Pratchett/Gaiman. But it is funny in a dark way, and at least both could be considered apocalyptic in tone…and that’s something. Hmm, I wonder if Douglas Coupland’s style, and in particular a book like Girlfriend in a Coma, was inspired by this book? (Aug. 29, 2006)
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett — a bit of fluffy, light holiday reading. Good fun, although sometimes the “Douglas Adams style” is a bit tiring (or perhaps I’m turning into a book snob). Actually, as is usually the case for me with books, I eventually got into it about half-way through, and (generally) enjoyed it. Still, the old paperback edition I was reading had a few too many typos and errors, which shows sloopiness (ha ha, I mean sloppiness, of course, and anyhow blogs are allowed a bit of it ;-). (Aug. 22, 2006)
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell — An “implicated outsider’s” book about civil war, in particular about the Catalans and foreign militia like Orwell who fought (and lost to) Franco’s Fascists in the late 1930s. Interesting to see what Barcelona was like at that time. (Aug. 14, 2006)
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy — Well, I obviously wasn’t reading at a crazy pace the last few months (so much for “summer reading”), but I finally worked my way through this epic book. I appreciate that it’s a “novel of ideas”, and has many brilliant elements, but I have to say I found the “tell, don’t show” approach a bit hard to read at times…it goes against everything I’ve learned about fiction writing. Obviously I’m missing the boat because many novelists have called it their inspiration. I know, I know — as with all great works of art, you have to take into account its context. The fact that no one would publish this book today doesn’t mean anything, right? (-; (Aug. 8, 2006)
• In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje — Time for me to move from Hogwarts to Hogtown in the 1920s and 30s. A little Can Lit (little is right — a pretty quick read) did me good. (Apr. 28, 2006)
• Harry Potter™ y la piedra filosofal by J.K. Rowling — Well, I never planned to read any of the HP™ books (who wants to support a book with “™” in the title?), but then again I figured this would be a suitable “easy read”, so I got the Spanish version. ¡Practiquemos! Much easier on my poor brain than El lápiz del carpintero, though nowhere near as beautifully written. (Apr. 23, 2006)
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens — I was due for a “timeless classic”, so this was it… Since I had a bad chest cold and was thus busting a rib with Great Expectorations, it only seemed appropriate to choose this novel. Many people read it in school, but for some reason I missed out on that pleasure. I really loved it! Except perhaps for the last few pages — both the published ending and Dickens’ original “bleaker” ending left me mildly disappointed. Then again, maybe I was just sad to see this wonderful book end. (Apr. 3, 2006)
• Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen by Gabriel García Márquez — a mini-book, in a series from Penguin’s 70th, of four translated Márquez stories. All have slightly morbid, death- or insanity-related themes. My favourite was the title selection, which reads like a chapter from one of his fantastic novels. For the record, the only one I’d call magical-realist is the little delight called Light is Like Water. (Mar. 7, 2006)
• All-Story magazine by Zoetrope (Winter 2005) — A few short bedtime stories. (Mar. 1, 2006)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde — and now for something completely different! This is Wilde’s only novel, a decadent and sinister tale of sensual excess and moral degradation. Not particularly flattering to the British, to Americans…well, to pretty much anyone. Not a book of redemption or even redeeming characters. So it’s not surprising it received such a hostile reaction in its day. At times I thought the voice of characters like Lord Henry intruded too much upon the narration voice, but this was only in a few places, and I still really enjoyed the book. Great storytelling — a classic example of “how to weave a plot”. Even though you have obvious “plants” (like James Vane’s threat to kill Gray if he hurts his sister), when they do reappear you’re left feeling satisfied, not disappointed. You know he has to (according to the laws of storytelling ;-) reappear to make good on his threat. He does, and it’s wonderful — the suspense ratchets up and you tear through the last quarter of the book. Same thing for the final “confrontation” with the painting. Easy to predict, yet you are still left with a great feeling of satisfaction after reading it. That’s the way to do it. (Feb. 28, 2006)
• El lápiz del carpintero by Manuel Rivas — Another (short) Spanish book (though I slow-poked through it for several weeks while travelling). Now, I don’t always promise to alternate reading English/Spanish books, but for now it seems to be my pattern. This one I also picked up last year on a trip to Spain. Actually, it’s a Galician book — mine’s a Spanish translation, from the original O lapis do carpinteiro (in gallego)… The writing is simple but poetic. Rivas exposes meaning through simple everyday vignettes. He creates beautiful and evocative imagery (so it makes sense that this 1998 book was turned into a film in 2003, though I haven’t seen it). It’s a disturbing view of what happened to artists, intellectuals and others who opposed the Franco regime from its earliest days. Well-timed to my learning more about this era of Spanish history, thanks to my travels, various web sites and even theatre. It is strange to be in Spain, knowing that this violent (and at times surreal) history is recent enough to still be alive in many people. (Feb. 9, 2006)
• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith — I received this for Christmas (from my Mom, who loves the whole “Precious” collection). I felt like something a bit more “easy on the brain” after reading so much — and so frustratingly slowly — in Spanish. So off I went south, from Madrid (where Alatriste takes place) to Botswana!
  It was a very quick read, funny, easy-going and at times moving. But some things I found a bit disconcerting. McCall Smith uses pretty conventional third-person POV (I would describe it as a “slightly limited omniscient”), with changing distance and focus. I occasionally found he made perspective shifts (or gave characters sudden omniscience) that bothered me. For example, in a scene where Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (love the names!) encounters the “thug” inquiring about Mr. Gotso’s car, he somehow — in “rapidly taking in the man’s appearance” from across the room — manages to notice the second hand of the man’s watch! If it were hyper-observant Mma Ramotswe I might have bought such observational powers, but it certainly didn’t work for J.L.B.! In a few cases like this, he made too big of a “camera” shift for my liking. In other places he jumps from Mma’s to other characters’ thoughts too abruptly (or at least, in my read, inconsistently with the scheme he’d chosen for most of the book). It was also a tad predictable — I had correctly guessed several key plot points early on. Perhaps I’m a good guesser, but I enjoy fiction that manages to keep me “in the story” so much that my rational brain is distracted and I get the same surprises as the characters (and at the same time). Nonetheless, a very enjoyable and quick read. The setting, the concept and the characters are a lot of fun. (Jan. 16, 2006)
• El Capitán Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte — The first novel in the Alatriste series. Note that a movie is being made of this book, starring Viggo Mortensen as Alatriste (to be released in 2006). Who knew Viggo spoke fluent Spanish? — apparently he spent his early years in Argentina. Anyhow, I was in Úbeda (Andalucía, Spain) last April and it was crawling with production types and star trailers, as they were shooting the film. I picked up the book in Spain, en mi búsqueda eterna de la fluidez española. It was tough and slow reading for me (as only my second “real” Spanish novel), especially in the description sections, where I got bogged down by words I didn’t know. But the action scenes flew by, the suspense was good — overall a very enjoyable action story. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get the next book in the series, Limpieza de Sangre, next time I’m in Spain. (January 13, 2006)
• How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers — 14 short stories. Here I was looking (not for recipes but) for inspiration for the short story form. Did I find it? I did. Eggers even manages to pull off a story told from a dog’s point of view. His writing is stylistically innovative. One story is even in the form of “notes for a story”. Sounds corny or like a cop-out, but it works very effectively. He always picks details that are right on the mark: simple, yet loaded with, er, tenuous connections. But it can be disturbing; there still seems to be so much rage in his writing. I am a man, and the same age as Eggers — at times he hits too close to the mark, revealing something in myself that I’d rather not have had exposed. Making me uncomfortable. But that’s just good art… At times I feel he “gets away with” things that would be criticized in a typical fiction workshop — don’t know whether this is because he is famous and thus can get away with it, or because typical fiction workshops are somewhat close-minded or short-sighted in their vision. Or, alternatively whether these would be legitimate criticisms. For example, sometimes he pushes the “emotional” envelope a bit too hard and too long. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it; but I feel that if I’d written the same way, I would have received negative comments from my workshop-mates. Needs editing. Over-emotional; we already got the point. Sigh. I guess the trick is to get known, then you can do what you want and people will simply assume you’re brilliant. Famous or not, do I accept he is brilliant? I do. (January 2, 2006)