I'm not much of a DHL fan, either. He seems kinda like Hesse to me, all full of (as Angus said) self-seriousness and revelations that aren't.

Here's Charles Taylor's response in Salon to that NYT Andrew Solomon article about the death of literacy.

Here's Charles Taylor's response in Salon to that NYT Andrew Solomon article about the death of literacy.

Interesting. I liked these points he makes:

"To hear him [Solomon] tell it, no one ever picks up a trashy book to kill time, no one ever gets around to that classic he always meant to read and finds that it bores him silly."

"Does Solomon even realize how exhausting a life of 'nothing but the highest' moments sounds?"

I like DH Lawrence.

Singularity Sky wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, but by the end, I was engaged enough to be wanting the next book in paperback. There's kind of two novels going on at once -- a very clunky war story, and a really fun interplanetary spy novel. The worldbuilding isn't paced terribly well, but by the time it's finished, it's not a bad world. The Festival is a terrifically neat idea, enough so that I'm willing to forgive the less than stellar writing. (And it's a first novel, so I'm expecting him to get better.) The political structure of the universe reminded me a bit of James Alan Gardner's League of Peoplesverse.

I like DH Lawrence.

Me too, particularly Women in Love and Sons and Lovers. Lawrence's poetry is worth reading, too.

Ever since I read his books and all I see is garter garter garter.

I'm now earwormed with a weird version of the badger song...

I'm now earwormed with a weird version of the badger song...

"Snake, it's a snake" takes on a whole new meaning.

I just read an odd book..."The End of the Empire" by Alexis Gilliland.

It was...weird. SF, sort of in the vein of the "classic" SF authors, Asimov and Bradbury and whatnot...but not quite as good. It felt more like the author had some sort of neat SF-ish ideas and hastily constructed a bullshit justification to throw them in. And the protagonist was...like, Fletch as an interplanetary gestapo officer with a heart of gold.

Just...odd.

I remember really hoping there was going to something nasty raunchy in Fanny Hill. With such a promising title ... I don't remember if I stuck it out. I was certainly disappointed.

I have never read Fanny Hill, but I read Erica Jong's re-telling of it at about 11 THAT seemed raunchy but mostly because of 1) the gay sex and 2) the chapter that listedlike, 100 nicknames for the penis.

I don't remember learning to read. I know my mother read to me nightly, and not from pictures books, but from nancy Drew and Little Women and such. I read anything I could get my hands on, which in my house was old nursing textbooks romance novels and classics. At the libraries, I read mysteries and fantasy. I do remember reading Our Town and making my mother (I was an only child) split the parts with me and act it out, with me directing. My poor mother. I used to also try to re-write Agatha Christie novels as plays.

I read Erica Jong's too. I can't remember if I liked it or not.

I liked it. There were pirates in it.