I hear you. I think that Byatt is one of the few writers who can write well in a baroque style, but her characters are often just representative of ideas, and her dialogues are clunky. So I liked Possession, Angels and Insects, and the more fantasy parts of Babel Tower, I couldn’t get into the heroine’s story too…

I haven’t, but I’m crazy about Shirley Jackson, especially her novels. I think they have Let Me Tell You in a local bookstore, I’ll check it out tomorrow. Thanks!

Oh and I forgot to say that I have been reading “renderings” of the classical Persian poet Hafez by Daniel Ladinsky. Academic experts hate the guy and his “renderings” but I loved what I read. One is a slim volume called I heard God laughing, and the other is A year with Hafez: daily contemplations.

If you like Coetzee, you might like Zama by di Benedetto.

Reading challenges on Goodreads are great, but I sometimes felt that I was reading too quickly in order to get to the next book.

I also love Wharton! I read her memoir not too long ago. It was kind of fluffy and la-dee-da, but she has a terrific voice.

I kind of fell out love with Byatt, in part because of Babel Tower. While there’s a lot about her writing that I am nuts about, I don’t like the Iris Murdoch-style need to address current events and intellectual trends. So the character is reading Chomsky? Saussure? Great! Anyone else? I think she could have used a…

I’ve been wanting to read Rebecca for ages, but I could only find copies with hideous covers on Book Depository and so I always put it off. I feel like it’s ok to be shallow in that way sometimes.

Could not agree more!

I love Austen and Eliot both!

I usually read nonstop but lately I’ve been filling that reading time with unavoidable work (yuck) and running (yay). At the moment I’m reading Antonio di Benedetto’s novel Zama. EXCELLENT!

It’s almost like io9 articles have gotten terrible since moving to Gizmodo.

This is such an excellent meta-comment.

I love the use of dufus as plural!

On the bright side, no more Casey Chan?

Could be interpreted as shade.

Jakisthe, Lifehacker - Lifehacker, Jakisthe.

hawt

Guy Delisle is really terrific. I loved his Chroniques de Jérusalem, and am looking forward to reading his other work.

So everyone has warned me against running every day, for a bunch of reasons. How did you feel, energy-wise and body-wise, when you were doing it every day?