Do you like them?

There was some dreadful fiction written around the beginning of the last century. But I've also got a couple of Joseph Conrad novels that I've never read; Amy and The End of the Tether and I'll probably reread Heart of Darkness as well, for about the hundredth time.

I'm still reading Ratking by Michael Dibdin. I'm almost done. This is the book where we are introduced to the Aurelio Zen character.

My wife just brought me Stephen King's Revival from the library. I will be reading that one next.

Mrs. Enthusiast is reading Broken Harbour by Tana French.

One of the great things about the Kindle is that Amazon has made it so much easier to find rare and out-of-print books either for free or very low cost, when in an earlier time, you'd have to search freaking forever, and then pay exorbitantly for an old, rare hard copy.

This book is one such book that I'd been searching for a very long time, without success. I haven't checked R.R. Ryan's Kindle availability, but if her stuff isn't available now, I'm pretty sure it won't be too much longer. Long Live Kindle!

Moving on to Unbearable Lightness of Being.

I'm fine except for a crappy little virus that has seemed to be determined to drown me in my own mucous. I wanted to get the weekly thread started on Sunday, but I was running a lowgrade fever and it was just more than I could manage to sit upright at a keyboard - much less marshall the energy to post. So I stayed in bed and hoped that someone else would get the "What are you reading" thread going - I checked back a few times so I could pin it if one was started, but gave up early in the evening and conked out.

When I saw that Goblinmonger had gotten the thread started on Monday morning, that was good enough for me. I still didn't feel up to posting so I just left it at that.

I'm getting better, it's beginning to appear that not all of my brain cells have been replaced by snot. I do hope to post a report about what I've been reading soon. Thank you for being such a sweet friend.

Just read his _The Forgotten_ over the holiday.

I read one of his books ages ago. Maybe I will try another one.

I'm not delving into anything new this week, instead I'm re-visiting the first four books in Tana French's "Dublin Murder Squad" series. After reading the fifth book in the series, twice, a couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to go back through the series from the beginning. I just picked up all four books from the library yesterday, and I've now got three weeks to get through them, one after another.

These are, in order:

In the Woods (2007)
The Likeness (2008)
Faithful Place (2010)
Broken Harbour (2012)

I originally read all of these in order as they became available at my local public library. One day in 2007 I happened to pick up the first book from the library's "New Books" shelf and was hooked. So I carefully tracked when another book was due to come out and placed an order for it. This means that I actually read each book in the year it was published - I'm time travelling back through 7 years.

I just started my trip back through In the Woods today, so I'm only a few pages in. Still, it only took a couple pages for me to feel myself fully back under the spell this author weaves with her exquisite use of language and her vividly portrayed characters. She pulls you along, deeper and deeper into the mystery. I'm confident that it's going to be a pure pleasure to re-read these works.

I have to mention that last week I grabbed a couple books that caught my eye from the library's paperback rack, to have something to read while I waited for the above four Tana French books to come in.

The first one I read was an entirely forgettable American murder mystery written in 1997. The title was Murder in a Mood Indigo by Francine Mathews. It happened to be #3 out of a four book series, "Nantucket Mysteries". I had the murderer pegged as soon as the character was introduced into the story. I would rate it as barely servicable as murder mysteries go, with a bit of interest due to the location, but the protagonist, Detective Meredith Folger, left me cold. Too much agonizing over her love life, for one thing, and the supporting cast were basically paper cutouts. I won't be pursuing anything else by this author.

The other book I grabbed was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey. I saw it on the rack and the realization hit me that I had never read it. I'd seen the movie years ago - and what an incredible movie it was! - but when I saw the book sitting there, it only seemed right to actually read the source material. It was a very old paperback, published in 1973 - kind of amazing to see it on that rack, really.

It was an absolutely gut-wrenching experience to read it. It disturbed my sleep for several nights, invaded my dreams, pained me in my waking state - it was hard to shake off the emotions it invoked. What a book! I'm very glad I read it, as painful as it was. I sort of feel like, "Okay, now I know." The rebellion against Authority, against Fascism, against the destruction of the soul. For a political animal like myself, it was an unforgettable experience. I may try some of Kesey's other books, but I don't feel in any hurry about it - I've got all my Tana French books to get through for now.

After I have seen a movie I find it hard to leave behind the images from the movie. Like with John Irving's Cider House Rules, for example. I couldn't read the book without picturing Michael Caine as the central doctor figure. For some reason I find this troubling. I did read Cider House Rules and found it to be better than the movie but, still.

I did have a hard time not picturing Jack Nicholson, Louis Fletcher, and Will Sampson while I was reading it, but I didn't find it particularly troubling. I think their performances in the movie did a truly excellent job of inhabiting the characters from the book pretty much as written, so for me, picturing the actors simply made the characters more vivid as I read the book. Also, it was so very many years ago that I saw the movie, that my memory of it was pretty foggy anyway. I was able to fully enter into the story with no problem.

Very good so far.