If there's a movie I know want to see, I try not to read reviews or look at the back of the DVD box. It's somewhat the same with books. Every so often a book comes along that I know I want to read, so I try not to read too much about it. I don't want pre-conceived notions of what the books is about. So forgive me for not providing descriptions of these books. These are the Top 5 books I want to read but don't already own.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2005). British author of much praised debut White Teeth. She's also funny and a fan of David Foster Wallace. "On Beauty" is supposed to examine political correctness and conservatism at American universities.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (2005). Economists look at questions like, What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? and Why do drug dealers live with their moms?
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2005). Reviewers call it mysterious, powerful, beautiful. The author's web site is very extensive and worth checking out. See it here. (It has sound, too.) (Also, this is a cheat -- I bought this book last week, so I do actually have it. I have not read it.)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (2005). Diamond looks at disappeared cultures such as the Vikings in Greenland or the Anasazi in the American Southwest, focusing on how and why scarce resources become completely depleted. Is this us?
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1981). This Robinson's first novel. I read her second novel, Gilead, this year and was blown away. I want more! "Gilead," by the way, just came out in paperback.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
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