What should I read next?

The menu at a good restaurant you have earned it. I am going to re-read Pool of Radiance , by James M. Ward and Jane Cooper Hong.

Personally, I’m a big Gaiman fan. But I haven’t read that book.

Orson Scott Card is a horrible person. But Enders Game is good.

Think you might be up to the challenge of House of Leaves? It’s anything but an easy read, but it is an extraordinary experience.

@Jeruba It’s funny you should mention House of Leaves. I read and enjoyed it a number of years ago. I was reading a literary blog this evening asking for noteworthy recommendations. I made that one to her.

I have somewhat preempted this question. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle that I got for free and a few that I bought. I decided I’d better start reading some of those.

Thus, I’m currently reading a few:

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (quite intriguing and informative)

The Essays of Montaigne—Vol. 1 (of 19 volumes, but they are thin, and I will read them all. He touched me in my university days.)

The Iliad trans. by Alexander Pope (I never tire of this one. I prefer Robert Fagles translation, but Pope’s is a classic and was free.)

Duino Elegies and other Selected Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke trans. by Leslie P. Gartner (I can’t escape poetry and must have it at all times.)

Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore (a romp)

I hope this information won’t deter anyone from making recommendations. I have lots of time to read at the moment, and I’m enjoying it immensely.

The play script for Jumpers for Goalposts.

The Life of Galilei, by Bertolt Brecht.
http://buehnenkunst.ohost.de/auditions_coming_up_files/Life%20of%20Galileo%20by%20Brecht.pdf
(should be the full thing)

The novel I am recommending widely these days is “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce. It’s short, quiet and very moving with sensitive characters and emotions. I think it is one you would really enjoy, Jake.

And totally off topic but because you love theater, I want to tell you I recited a poem by Frost on the stage at the Apollo Theater yesterday.

I just read a great novel by Mario Puzo, Fool’s Die, pretty interesting.

I’ve been re-reading James Thurber (currently skipping through selections in a 900-page anthology edited by Garrison Keillor, and loving nearly every page). That’s during my lunch hour at work.

At home I’ve been reading Leon Uris’ The Haj, about the creation of modern-day Israel (I’m going to have to read some Arab accounts of the same period for balance, I guess).

Since Thurber wrote until the 1950s and Uris published his book in 1984, neither of these are very au courant, but if one hasn’t read something then it’s new to one, so I’m enjoying them.

(I also reread Joseph Heller’s God Knows earlier in the summer, and loved it even more than the first time.)

@janbb I wish I’d been there to hear you.

@Hawaii_Jake, it seems we have similar tastes.

I recently enjoyed May We Be Forgiven, by A.M. Homes, and The Tragedy of Arthur, by Arthur Phillips, as well as two excellent novels by Olga Grushin.

Impossible Vacation by Spalding Gray is one I’ve read more than a few times and well worth the time.

A Man In Full by Thomas Wolfe is a lot of fun and if you’ve never read Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt you need to stop what you are doing and start right now.