This entry was posted on 7/23/2007 5:56 AM and is filed under What I'm Reading.
So many books. So little time. Going online to snap up an image for this entry, I became sullen looking at all of the contemporary titles of fiction I haven't yet read. Especially novels. Because I read the Pushcart Anthology from cover to cover every year and attend lots of lit mag readings, I feel like I have a good idea of what's going on with short fiction...but there's always so much to read. Novels are tough because I prefer to really immerse myself in the world, without having to leave it. In other words, when I read a novel, I don't like to read other fiction at the same time.
Impossible.
When I'm teaching, there is so much I'm reading for class preparations and so much student work, I can't have it my way. Novels are one of the gifts of summer. I also sometimes choose to discuss them in the classes I teach so I can read/reread them.
For my Characterization class, the third novel my class will discuss is Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. Emily, who is one of my best friends, gave me this novel for my birthday before all of the hype generated by the 2003 Pulitzer and Oprah. I just noticed all three of the books I've chosen to teach have been major book clubs' picks. I knew about Middlesex, but not Sula or History of Love. Interesting. See what happens when you don't watch TV?
I finished Sula, which amazed me again. How is it that Morrison took those characters through their whole lives, spanning from 1919 to 1965 in 174 pages? It is, to say the least, remarkable.
