A (relatively) reasonable list of books for which I’ve developed a lust since last month’s installment. Methinks it has something to do with all the books I really want to get to that are already at home.
The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL, Mark Bowden — I don’t think I’ve watched five minutes of an NFL football game this year. But considering the Baltimore Colts (there is and never will be any other Colts NFL team) and Johnny Unitas were among my sports favorites growing up, I couldn’t resist putting a hold on this at the library.
Death with Interruptions, Jose Saramago — I run hot and cold on Saramago’s work but the fact the local library just got this helped put Saramago’s take on “death takes a holiday” on the list.
Metropole, Ferenc Karinthy — I’m curious what it says about my tastes when I lust after a book whose plot is described as “a hell with no exit, the experience of the everyday when the normal has become monstrous.”
Prescription for a Superior Existence, Josh Emmons — When a review says a book “resembles something Philip K. Dick might have written,” I’m in.
Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment, Phil Zuckerman — A sociologist goes to Scandinavia to explore the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation.
I managed to read three of the books on last month’s list: The Forever War, The Wasted Vigil, and Scattershot: My Bipolar Family. Meanwhile, I’m moving up the library “hold” list for Nothing to Be Frightened Of and am awaiting a review copy of I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto. I also managed to start The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War but other commitments kept me from completing it before I had to return it to the library.
Of the two books remaining unread from September’s Bibliolust, I read and enjoyed Per Petterson’s To Siberia while Mikhail Bulgakov’s White Guard remains in the TBR stack.
I require books as I require air.
Sholem Asch, NYT Book Review, April 28, 1940
