What Are You Reading?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask of friends--or even strangers! With friends I ask unapologetically as I rifle through their shelves or peer into books left lying around on counter/tabletops. Strangers will inevitably get the question when my infamous inability for small talk rears its ugly head; "Hi, nice to meet you. Beautiful weather we're having. So... what do you like to read?" Or even worse, I stop and crane my head to rudely stare at the covers of books I see people reading in parks or while waiting in lines.

I can't help it. I love to know what's out there: What's good, what people are reading, what I'm missing, and what I absolutely shouldn't miss. So here is a list of what I'm reading right now (I always have more than one book going at a time, there's too much good stuff out there to limit it to one), and I hope you'll comment to let me know what you're reading. And please tell me what you think of it as well. The recommendations of friends is the best way to find great new reads!

• Cannery Row- My very favorite Steinbeck. This is the November read for my literature class, so you can expect some commentary or biographical trivia about this book and its author in future posts.
• 3 Minutes or Less, Life Lessons from America's Greatest Writers- Presented by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. A collection of humorous, heartwarming, inspiring or confessional short speeches from writers presenting at the annual gala at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• The World Before Her- by Deborah Weisgall. A fictional account of a year George Eliot spent in Venice on her honeymoon with a man not quite her soul mate, intermingled with the account of a modern woman in Venice with her husband to celebrate their 10 year marriage which has become stale over time. Their parallel stories are told in alternating chapters as they each search for love and identity in the city rich with beauty and history.
• Living With Books- By Alan Powers. I am LOVING this book! Filled with beautiful photos of homes in which people make books an intimate part of their lives and decor. Rather than making room for books in your home this book tells (and shows) you how to beautifully and tastefully build your home around your books. This can be a dangerous book, as I guarantee it will make you want to completely re-organize/ -decorate your house and incorporate the ideas you find in here. I've already taken the cabinet doors off my linen cabinet to make an eccentric but charming new book-nook.

And I can't finish this post without mentioning that I just finished reading Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Bill Bryson's Shakespeare, the World as Stage. Both are extremely worthwhile reads.
Happy Reading!


(Girl with book photo at the top of this post courtesy of Urban Photo)
If you are reading this on Facebook you can click here to go to the original post on my blog, Banquet of Books