Sunday Salon

Additions To My Library

1. The Annotated Lolita by V. Nabokov


2. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Recommended by Bookgasm and on the bargain table at Borders.)


3. On Chesil Beach by I. McEwan (For Seconds Challenge.)


4. Snow Country by Y. Kawabata (For Japanese Lit. Challenge.)


5. Silk by A. Baricco (Recommended by someone on Marginal Revolution's The best books under 100 pages. I have read An Iliad, so I could read it for the Seconds Challenge.)


6. The Arabian Nights transl. by Husain Haddawy

Finished Reading This Week

1. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by S. Squire


2. Reading the OED by A. Shea


3. 300 by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley


4. Flaubert's Parrot by J. Barnes

Currently Reading
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. I just started this today as a follow-up to Amon Shea's book Reading the OED. I have also listened to a lecture by Mr. Winchester on this very topic and found it very interesting.

Challenges Update

The What's In A Name Challenge:

1. A book with an animal in its title: Throne of the Eagle (done)


2. A book with a first name in its title: The Lais of Marie de France (done)


3. A book with a place in its title: Amsterdam (done)


4. A book with a weather event in its title: Atmospheric Disturbances (done)


5. A Book with a color in its title: White Noise by Don DeLillo (done)


6. A book with a plant in its title: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (I have been waiting for the library to deliver it.)

I have also started the Man Booker Challenge (six Man Booker winners, short/long listed):

1. The Sea by John Bainville -- Winner 2005 (done)


2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell -- Short List 2004 (done)


3. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes -- Short List 1984 (done)


4. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan -- Winner 1998 (done)


5. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood -- Winner 2000


6. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch -- Winner 1978

The Seconds Challenge

I had a tentative list of the books I wanted to read for this challenge:

1. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan


2. Black Swan by Nassim Taleb


3. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton


4. Number9Dream by David Mitchell

But I might substitute any of the following in:

• The History of the World in 10 1/2 Books by J. Barnes


• Silk by A. Baricco


• Dearly Devoted Dexter by J. Lindsay


• Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde


• The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

The Japanese Lit Challenge 2

I don't quite know what to read for this, maybe:

1. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata


2. After Dark by Haruki Murakami


3. Something by Kirino or Mishima