TBR Lucky Dip: February
As I explained in my post about reading plans for the new year, each month I’m going to be using a random number generator to select a book from my TBR pile for me to read, to help me read more widely from my shelves.
This month, the deities of www.random.org have ordained that I should read book number 35. According to my TBR list this means that I am reading…
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not…
In three brilliant variations on the classic detective story, Paul Auster makes the well-traversed terrain of New York City his own, as it becomes a strange, compelling landscape in which identities merge or fade and questions serve only to further obscure the truth. What emerges is an investigation into the art of storytelling, notions of identity and the very essence of language.
This was yet another book that I picked up at university as possible extra reading for one of the courses I was taking, then never got round to reading because I loathed that course (Critical Theories, a course of which they changed the content and structure every year because every year, in general, people disliked it and didn’t do as well as in other areas) with a fiery passion and the thought of inflicting more than the required reading on myself each week did not hold any appeal. If I find this one too heavy going I may just read the first book, City of Glass, for now and then put it back on the TBR pile until I feel up to reading book two. We’ll see how it goes.
(Apologies for the lack of reivews this week; it’s been very busy. Hopefully I’ll catch up a bit this weekend and can get back to normal next week).
4 Responses to “TBR Lucky Dip: February”
Comment from Annie
Time February 14, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I have this on my shelf following a recommendation from David Lodge, but I have to say I’ve never got round to reading it, so I’m going to be very interested in how you get on.
Comment from oldenglishrose
Time February 17, 2011 at 3:14 pm
It remains to be seen. Postmodernism isn’t really an area in which I’m particularly well-read, so I’m a little nervous.
Comment from oldenglishrose
Time February 17, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Well, that’s a pretty good recommendation. I think it might be started this weekend and I’m just as interested as you are in how it goes!
Comment from motheretc
Time February 11, 2011 at 1:34 pm
I’ve only read the first one of the trilogy. It was interesting and strange, and didn’t make me feel like I had to immediately read the next two, which I never did. Maybe you’ll feel differently though!