It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Tags

audiobook, Character Crush, chinua achebe, disgrace, Dr. Gonzo, fear and loathing, hunter s thompson, jm coetzee, kazuo ishiguro, liz jensen, meme, nocturnes, puerto rico, rum diary, sylvia plath, the rapture

Welcome to ‘It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?’, a weekly meme initially hosted by Sheila at the ‘Book Journey – One Persons Journey Through a World of Books’. This is a great way of letting people know what I’ve been reading over the past week and what I’ve got lined up for this week.

Another slow one this week and I’ve gotten side-tracked a lot, but here’s an honest list of things finished/ pending and currently in the works:

BOOKS READ:
1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream – Hunter S. Thompson

Savoured every last word of this insane epic. Loved it so much that I think I’ve been sitting and re-reading choice paragraphs and committing them to memory. Click here to read my review, and check out my ‘Character Crush’ of the week! 

2. The Rapture (Audiobook) – Liz Jensen 

Finally finished the audiobook version of this dystopian/ environmental/ Armageddon themed book that has a healthy dash of religious fanaticism thrown in for good measure. Click here for my review.

CURRENTLY READING:
1. The Rum Diary – Hunter S. Thompson

Currently on page 50 of this fictional account of Thompson’s journalistic experiences during his short stay in Puerto Rico in the late 1950’s. It was written before Fear and Loathing, and retains the linear writing style of your average reporter. But I’m glad to say I can spot flecks of the pioneering Gonzo style very now and then.  

2. Winter Trees – Sylvia Plath
 
This is where I start to deviate from last weeks reading plans. I felt a dire need for some poetry, so I managed to pick up this very slim (but seriously dense) book of Plath’s poems. Written towards the last 9 months of her life, they evoke the emotional turmoil for a woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She writes like a trapped beast. Each word a cutting claw, a razor tooth. I feel disdain for Ted Hughes…

BOOKS TO READ:

1. Nocturnes – Kazuo Ishiguro

Not the promised Murakami, but still a Japanese author nonetheless. I have been desperate to get my hands on Nocturnes ever since ‘A Pale View of Hills’. Haven’t started it yet, but I’m sure it’ll be wonderful.

2.Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

I have yet to read any Achebe, and I was seduced by ‘Things Fall Apart’ at my local library. Now that the world cup is on I wanted to read some African Literature. Praise for the book goes like this: “The writer in whose company the prison walls fell down” – Nelson Mandela. 

3.Disgrace – JM Coetzee

Again, another book with a setting in South Africa, this time by Coetzee, another first time read. This novel won the Booker Prize in 1999. Took a sneak peek and I think it’s marvellous. 

That’s it for this week folks. Would love to know what you think of my choices.