last amazing book you read

[a cockroach]

as always, always in search of the next book to change my life, i'm curious to know the last great reads you lovers' of words have read. my last, was the last book i read, finished sometime last week, and linger with such intensity that i have yet to be able to pick up another book to read. it won't change my life, but it was the first time i read gabriel garcia marquez, and it leaves me insatiable for more of him. like the first time i read kundera, or murakami, or hesse. the book, by the way, isn't even his "masterpiece" so you can imagine how excited i am to devour more of his work. the book was love in the time of cholera; what was yours?

[Catherine Van]

The Road.

[Harry]

Hi Paul,
You referred before to Sixx A.M. and I had no idea who they were. Didn't put the double X together. Now it makes sense, After Motley? Was never really a Motley fan but I'll look 'em up and have a listen.

[Harold N. Walters]

Happy Monday.

Just yesterday finished reading Aravind Adiga's "The White Tiger." Worth reading. It might not change your life but it will entertain you for a few hours.

H

[Trevor Mcpherson]

About this time last year, a friend turned me on to the author Scott Lynch. His Lies of Locke Lamora, and Red Seas under Red Skies are both rollicking good historical fiction. His prose is detail rich without bogging down, and the pacing is phenomenal. It was hard to find a good stopping spot in the books.

On a slightly geekier note, I recently finished McLuhan's Understanding Media. Originally published in 1964, the concepts he puts forth are increasingly relevant in the internet age. Matter of fact, If I didn't know better, I'd swear he invented the world wide web. His elevation to Sainthood by the founders of Wired magazine is entirely warranted - Nostradum=us got nothing on Marshall.

On an even geekier note, the short stories of Phillip K. Dick have given me a swift kick in the backside. His ability to capture the psychological implications of technology in his characters is riveting. Also, his treatment of time as a non-linear function has left my doors of perception hanging by a single hinge, if I may riff on Huxley.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

For this year, I loved "The Elegance of the Hedgehog."

[Ms Q]

The Book of Flying by Keith Miller. It sat on my bookshelf for nearly 3 years before I decided to pick it up and give it a burl. Fantasy is definitely not my genre, but I was completely blown away with it. Love, love, love! As a skeptic with heels firmly dug in, I was most definitely surprised to find myself pining!

[Erica]

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami<3
i read it during my first English Lit course my freshman year of college. i fell in love with it & English classes at the same time. the next year, i was an english major<3 haha

[John Wiswell]

Samuel Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge is one of hundreds of authors I've put off reading in a serious way for my whole life, and finally sat down to try. I normally hate poetry and loved this. So gripping, so versatile in voice for something constrained to metrics. The meaning unravels even as the seaman tells the tale, and it's all so chaotic yet natural. Got me so good I got that urge little girls get with Harry Potter - to steal Coleridge's mariner and wedding-goer for my own story.