Recent reading

McMurtry's Dead Man Walking was a disappointment. To put it bluntly, it was dull, and that's the worse you can see about any book! I hope the last two books in the series are better, although I can't imagine either could be the equal of Lonesome Dove.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Ere a one oughten to red hit. Sho.

A new favorite of mine. Some criticize this book for its various narrators and difficulty, but I think it is very engaging and enthralling. It didn't bother me none noways, in fact. Now, sometimes I couldn't tell every detail of what was going on, and, in reading about the book since finishing it, I found some things that I missed, but I was swept up by Faulkner's writing style. Nothing much happens with the plot: Addie dies, her family takes her to Jefferson to be buried, they have to get a new team after theirs drowns in a river, Darl one night sets fire to the barn where the coffin is, and they bury her. Yet, what makes it is the beautiful language.

Usually, when I read any book, I want to establish some sense of what it means, what it's about. With this book, however, I was so into the writing style that it didn't much matter to me. Indeed, I feel like I wish I could live in Yoknapatawpha County with these characters, if I could stand the farm living life. I don't think I've felt that way about a book before. I'm sure Darl and I could be good friends.

I like how you come to understand the characters more deeply throughout the book, how their different perceptions combine to a rich whole, and how they can easily go from speaking with "durnt" and "beholden" and "paw" to keen intellectual soliloquies that equally take your breath away.

Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

This book is one of the great reading experiences of my life. What a story, what characters, what great writing.

McMurtry is great at creating characters. He seems to be able to create characters at will. It's extraordinary.

The novel ends without any happy notes. No relationships are resolved. No one is happy. Perhaps in the sequel there will some kind of happy ending.

Harry Potter's Disappearing Act

For the first time in over ten years, no Harry Potter book is on the best-seller lists, according to the Book Review and The New York Times. The seven book series has sold around 375 million copies. Its reign as a best-seller began at the end of 1998, with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, just eight days after President Clinton was impeached by the House.

The series' success is astounding. The Book Review created a new best-seller list for children. Later, as more copies were sold and J. K. Rowling published more books, another best-seller list was created for children's series books.

Harry Potter's run is probably not over yet, however. The sixth film is to be released in November; no doubt it will spur Pottermania's reappearance.