Books I've read since getting here:

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Le Sabotage Amoreux - Amelie Nothomb
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Tom Robbins
Fictions - Jorge Borges
portions of Huit Novelles and Caprices des Femmes (collections of French short stories)
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
About a Boy - Nick Hornby
31 Songs - Nick Hornby
Sanctuary - Nora Roberts
Love - Toni Morrison
In the Beginning was the Command Line - Neal Stephenson
Checkpoint - Nicholson Baker
Diary - Chuck Pahlaniuk

It was cool when Kafka wrote Metamorphosis, but now it's old hat. Being in French just makes it more confusing. Le Sabotage Amoreux is delightful, but suffers from a case of being written in French. I re-read the French version of the Robbins, and discovered that the only people who would like the book are Americans who can read French. Borges is one of the greatest writers I've read, in any language. his work is the most consistenly creative stuff I've ever seen. The two collections were uninteresting, hence me only reading portions thereof. A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the best books ever. Nick Hornby writes books like the songs he likes. Watch High Fidelity or About a Boy, and read the books like you were listening to the soundtracks of those movies. Nora Roberts writes books for lonely women, and quite bored twentysomething men are a small minority of her readers. Anything Neal Stephenson touches is gold, but you have to have a secret desire to be a ninja or an engineer, or, even better, both at once!. The Nicholson Baker book is written in a modern style that's good if you read it fast, like every snippet of conversation is extremely witty and quick. Chuck Pahlaniuk writes books that, in your mind, look like Fight Club was filmed. That's because he wrote Fight Club.
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