Well, I had to put down Birds Without Wings. I couldn’t get into it enough. Maybe it is all the baseball. I haven’t been taking it with me when I leave the house. It was reserved for home reading (too heavy and cumbersome). Instead I started reading The Great Wave the other night. It was after Game 5 of the ALCS. I was too keyed up to go to sleep right away, so I grabbed this off my shelf. So good! I stayed up another half hour reading it. The first chapter of Melville is fascinating.
And I have found some other great stuff to read as I’ve been trolling the shelves of the store in search of things for the holiday promotions we do here. At my store we have books each month that we recommend and discount 20% (along with the NYT bestsellers and the top 10 bestsellers of hardcover and paperback each week). But in November, we put up our Holiday Hundred—100 titles that we recommend from throughout the year, plus a few new things. It’s much more difficult to choose, because they are books we think are some of the best to come out this year. But I’ve enjoyed browsing the past few days. I miss that.
On a side note, I will be attending the Michael Gorra-James Wood event next week. And I will try to provide some details about what happens. I might also see the David Lodge and Ha Jin events.