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What are you reading Chapter 4

#2,983
I finally finished my re-read of Anna Karenina.
Then read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
And, last night, finished Paul Beatty's The Sellout.

And I finished the audio lessons in Pimsleur's Japanese ! and began II. I'm also using Mango Languages (through the library) and Genki I.
 
#2,984
I've now finished the last two of the Han Solo trilogy I mentioned the other day. While being competently written sci-fi adventures in and of themselves, what I'm most amazed by is the amount of "standards" Daley created that became part of the old Star Wars Extended Universe. With literally nothing but the movies to build upon, and having nothing at all to do with the movies besides involving Han and Chewie, these fit right in with some of my favorite Star Wars novels (Timothy Zahn) and feel like Star Wars. Small details like the names of various mechanisms and starships became the norm and were referenced all over the rest of the EU. And most of that wasn't written for around 15 years or so! The continuity between stories astounds me, especially since these days everything has been deleted/ret-conned into oblivion in Star Wars. I'm still sour about the old EU being thrown away. (Yes, I am an old man yelling at the clouds!)

In other news, I got a few books as gifts today. So in the near future I'll likely be reading two more of Mark Twain's lesser known titles (Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc and The Celebrated Jumping Frog) as well as The History of the Archbishops of Hamburg by Adam of Bremen.
 
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#2,986
Becoming O'Keeffe-The Early Years.jpg
 
#2,987
Just started Mark Twain's collection of short stories - The Celebrated Jumping Frog. Only 20ish pages in so far, but enjoying it. I'll be slowing down on the reading this year. The last two years my goal has been to catch up on my massive stacks of unread books. I certainly made plenty of headway in that regard, but also bought plenty! I read 84 two years ago, and 110 this past year. My goal is 50 this year, and to also start doing likewise with my film collection I figure if I've already got them, may as well enjoy them instead of spending more! And ditto for some of my old video games! Hoping to play a few of those with my son.
 
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#2,990
kleinenenten said:
Just started Mark Twain's collection of short stories - The Celebrated Jumping Frog. Only 20ish pages in so far, but enjoying it. I'll be slowing down on the reading this year. The last two years my goal has been to catch up on my massive stacks of unread books. I certainly made plenty of headway in that regard, but also bought plenty! I read 84 two years ago, and 110 this past year. My goal is 50 this year, and to also start doing likewise with my film collection I figure if I've already got them, may as well enjoy them instead of spending more! And ditto for some of my old video games! Hoping to play a few of those with my son.
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That reminds me, last year I was a volunteer first round reader for "The Mark Twain American Voices in Literature Award." It's an American-centric award, with one of the evaluation criteria on how it portrays the American experience. They don't send you any books, but make them available digitally (most were in pdfs last year), and most are available through the library. I read some interesting books (and one of the cringiest) that I otherwise would not have. I'm not sure if I'll do it again this year, but maybe. I recently bought a couple books published in 2025, Susan Choi's Flashlight and Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel, so I'll see if they're on the nomination list. If interested, here's a FAQ link.

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For my current reading, I'm in the midst of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. I've read Murakami's running essays and a collection of short stories before, but this is the first novel, and I'm quite liking it. It has me dwelling on my own early college nostalgia, though. It's set in the 1960s, first person narrated, about a college student in Japan's experiences, particularly his first love of a troubled young woman, and so far, how a traumatic event impacted them.

I've paused reading it as my library hold of Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This came up, and I'm half way into it. It's non-fiction and deals with difficult subjects that a discussion of will reach beyond this forum's rules, but much of it contends with the disparity between "the West's" (mainly American) ideals and actions, and for whom they are applied. So far, it also discusses the state of journalism and various pressures it currently faces. There are a number of quite difficult scenes dealing with the human cost of war.
 
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#2,991
Sertsa said:
That reminds me, last year I was a volunteer first round reader for "The Mark Twain American Voices in Literature Award." It's an American-centric award, with one of the evaluation criteria on how it portrays the American experience. They don't send you any books, but make them available digitally (most were in pdfs last year), and most are available through the library. I read some interesting books (and one of the cringiest) that I otherwise would not have. I'm not sure if I'll do it again this year, but maybe. I recently bought a couple books published in 2025, Susan Choi's Flashlight and Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel, so I'll see if they're on the nomination list. If interested, here's a FAQ link.

---
For my current reading, I'm in the midst of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. I've read Murakami's running essays and a collection of short stories before, but this is the first novel, and I'm quite liking it. It has me dwelling on my own early college nostalgia, though. It's set in the 1960s, first person narrated, about a college student in Japan's experiences, particularly his first love of a troubled young woman, and so far, how a traumatic event impacted them.

I've paused reading it as my library hold of Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This came up, and I'm half way into it. It's non-fiction and deals with difficult subjects that a discussion of will reach beyond this forum's rules, but much of it contends with the disparity between "the West's" (mainly American) ideals and actions, and for whom they are applied. So far, it also discusses the state of journalism and various pressures it currently faces. There are a number of quite difficult scenes dealing with the human cost of war.
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An interesting thought, but I can't say I'm terribly interested in reading about the American experience overall. Most of the books I've read have been medieval history or something similar. And in a strange coincidence of sorts, I'm actually from Missouri, and have visited many of Twain's old haunts in the state. I know that he obviously became rather famous and lived elsewhere, but I had a strange bit of disappointment/surprise when I saw this was sponsored by the group that runs his CT house museum, and not one of the organizations here! Never would have thought of him being celebrated in another state, though that's my own bias at play!
 
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#2,992
kleinenenten said:
An interesting thought, but I can't say I'm terribly interested in reading about the American experience overall. Most of the books I've read have been medieval history or something similar. And in a strange coincidence of sorts, I'm actually from Missouri, and have visited many of Twain's old haunts in the state. I know that he obviously became rather famous and lived elsewhere, but I had a strange bit of disappointment/surprise when I saw this was sponsored by the group that runs his CT house museum, and not one of the organizations here! Never would have thought of him being celebrated in another state, though that's my own bias at play!
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I understand that, both the reading focus and the Twain prize being run by the the Connecticut museum. After reading a few contemporary American books early last year, I switched to reading more of what was available in English by Korean author Han Kang (whose work I'm astounded by, especially Human Acts, although it's emotionally devastating), then an epic classic with Anna Karenina.
 
#3,000
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Laughing Policeman
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For me, this book is a greatest police detective novel ever. I've read it first in Ukrainian, then in Russian (2 or 3 diffeent translations), then in English. Still love Ukrainian best (made by late great Olha Seniuk).
There's a 1973 US-made movie loosely based on the book, with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, but it wan't successful.
 
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