Day 171: Reading List

So this isn't a book haul really, but I was compiling a list of books I'd really like to read and I thought, hey, why not put this on the blog?

First up, 'Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy' which is another spy novel that I'm interested in reading after having read this first le Carre book. I've heard great things about this one as well, and there's that movie with Gary Oldman in it, and if Gary Oldman is involved then it must be amazing, right?

I signed up for a writing workshop at a local bookstore and learned about some local authors I'm interested in reading, one in particular named Steve Cushman who has a novel called 'Portisville' that won a Novello literary award back in 2004. It's about a son who returns home after his estranged father demands to die. He ends up embroiled in a murder mystery instead. I think I'll start with this one, but I'd really like to read as many local authors as I can. Maybe if I read enough of them I'll actually run into one of them at some point.

I haven't read a classic since by classics binge a few months ago and I'd like to get back into them. Since reading 'A Moveable Feast,' I haven't stopped thinking about a book I've actually already read before, 'The Great Gatsby.' Hemingway actually talks about the release of Gatsby in the novel which was really cool, but to be honest I didn't really enjoy reading it myself. I want to give it another try because every book I've ever been forced to read has been awful, so maybe if I read it for reading's sake I'll actually get to enjoy it.

A book I've heard about a few times, and seen in several reading lists, is 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt. I don't know too much about this one, but from what I've seen, it's about a group of students at an elite college that induct a new student into their clique who has a dark secret. As someone who was always 'the new kid' myself, I think this would be an interesting read. It'll be interesting to see how an author represents this perspective that I've often found myself in. Then again, I never killed anybody though. Maybe that would have made me more interesting in high school ...

That's all I'm looking at right now, but maybe I'll come back and add more to this post in a future update.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley