So today I found out about a great meme or blog carnival going on over at 5 Minutes for Books- the What's On Your Nightstand? meme.You can go on over the site to find out more about it. You can post weekly or monthly or whenever, and do mini reviews or just list off what you're reading, or use it to set goals. I think it's a neat idea and it looks like I'm just under the wire to post for January so here goes.
On my nightstand at the moment are three books:
The Story of French, by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. It's an interesting, enlightening history of the French language and its various forms and influences. It's pretty accessible, written in 20-odd page chapters that are great to dip in and out of now and then. I think I'm on chapter 8 or so. It usually takes me a while to work through my bedside books!
The Russian Debutante's Handbook, by Gary Shteyngart. I think this was his debut novel- it's been out for a few years and I picked it up recently on Bookmooch because I enjoyed his last novel, Absurdistan, so much. Like Absurdistan, Handbook is a satire about the lives and travails of Russian Jewish immigrants. I'm only a little ways through it but I'm enjoying it very much. It centers on a character called Vladimir, a slightly hapless nonprofit worker and his various adventures.
Finally, there's Liz Tuccillo's How to be Single, a chick-lit opus I got via a giveaway. It's fun. My policy on chick lit is I only read it when it's free, and this was free, so I'm reading it. Obviously the title should be How to Get A Man, cause that's what all these books are about. It's still a cute book and not totally obnoxious. (If I sound like a literary snob, it's cause I am. Sorry!)
11 comments:
I like 5 Minutes for Books, its a fun site :)
enjoy your reading! lol about the chick lit.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
Welcome from 5M4B! I also laughed about the chick-lit comment and I have a similar philosophy as well.
I have the Russian Debutante around here somewhere. On my nightstand and piled all around are about thirty books - really - that I am reading. I am finishing Julie & Julia tonight.
The last line (that in parentheses) of this post is without a doubt my new catchphrase. Thanks.
What a great idea for a meme.
~~Lorri
Your comments on How to Be Single are just how I feel about those books. It is not really about 'how to be single' but about 'how not to be single for long'. Where is the book that celebrates single life? That helps you relish in your freedom to explore new avenues without worrying about how someone else will take it? That's the book I want to see.
Chick Lit to me is like junk food. It's fun to eat, but you can't eat it constantly or it will make you sick. :)
That being said, I do love junk food now and then.
Hee-hee, I feel like a bit of a literary snob when it comes to chick lit too, although I agree with Alyce, it can be fun to eat/read (if you can find the "flavour" that suits you)!
I'm impressed with how few books you have on your nightstand!
I have The Russian Debutante's Handbook and I've started it a few times but I am never able to get into it.
Marie, the book on French language sounds great. It would make a nice trio with these on my nightstand: The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, and Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties by Noel Riley Fitch. WE Francophiles have to stick together.
Dave, Absoluement!
Post a Comment