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Thursday 4 August 2011

Summer Reading

On Tuesday, on my first visit to the World Examining Works blog (which I arrived at via that of The Weaver of Grass I found the suggestion that we might like to post on our blogs the following from our Summer reading:-
2 non-fiction books that we have enjoyed
2 new fiction reads ditto
and 2 old favourites re-read.

Well, why not?
The two new non-fiction that I have most enjoyed (actually, am most enjoying: but there we go, veracity to fact is not the deepest truth) are:

"The Stranger's Child" by Alan Hollinghurst
and
"The Hare with Amber Eyes" by Edmund de Waal

The latter is probably the most unusual book I have read in a long while. The hare in question is a netsuke, one of those tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, which was left the narrator in a legacy. It is a treasure hunt-cum-family saga.

My two non-fiction choices are both technical books:-

"Language Technology and Society" by Richard Sproat, an overview from ancient hieroglyphs to the computerising of Chinese script and machine translation,
and
"The Sound of Poetry; the Poetry of Sound" co-edited by Perloff and Dworkin. It is a collection of papers from scholars, poets and translators - some of whom are all three.

Finally my two old favourites taken down and dusted are:-

"Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" by Peter Hoeg
and
"Marabou Stork Nightmares" by Irvine Welsh

4 comments:

CiCi said...

The Hare With Amber Eyes sounds intriguing. I will check that one out. Have fun reading.

Mary said...

i'm with TechnoBabe. Of all those you mentioned, I am most fascinated with The Hare with Amber Eyes as well. Your reading tastes are as diverse as your poetry, Dave.

Crafty Green Poet said...

The Hare with Amber Eyes is already on my wishlist! I also really enjoyed both Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow and Marabou Stork Nightmares

Dave King said...

TechnoBabe
Will do. You'll not be disappointed, I'm sure!

Mary
Yes, you're quite right there. It worries me sometimes!

Crafty Green Poet
Hope the Hare hops your way soon. A charming book.