What are you reading?

~ Live & Learn

We all ask each other a lot of questions: “Where did you go for vacation?” “How did you sleep?” Or, my favorite, as I eye the last bites of chocolate cake on a friend’s dessert plate, “Are you going to finish that?” (A question memorably featured in the 1982 movie Diner.) But there’s one question I think we should ask of one another a lot more often, and that’s “What are you reading?” It’s a simple question but a powerful one, and it can change lives, creating a shared universe for people who are otherwise separated by culture and age and by time and space. […]

When we ask one another “What are you reading?” sometimes we discover the ways that we are similar; sometimes the ways that we are different. Sometimes we discover things we never knew we shared; other times we open ourselves up to exploring new worlds and ideas. “What are you reading?” isn’t a simple question when asked with genuine curiosity; it’s really a way of asking, “Who are you now and who are you becoming?

~ Will Schwalbe, Books for a Living

And after being prompted by several friends to share what I am reading, here’s my current list:

  1. Books for Living, by Will Schwalbe
  2. A Slight Exaggeration: Essays by Adam Zagajewski
  3. Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  4. If There is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems by Vera Pavlova

And yours?

Photo: (via nini-poppins)

54 thoughts on “What are you reading?”

    1. 1) Books for Living, Will Schwalbe. (https://www.amazon.com/Books-Living-Will-Schwalbe-ebook/dp/B01FPGY5VI/ref=sr_1_1?)

      2) A Slight Exaggeration: Essays by Adam Zagajewski (https://www.amazon.com/Slight-Exaggeration-Essay-Adam-Zagajewski-ebook/dp/B01M0HR9HZ/ref=sr_1_1?)

      3) Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard (https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Karl-Ove-Knausgaard-ebook/dp/B01N3BU8XE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504351423&sr=8-1&keywords=autumn+by+karl+ove+knausgaard)

      4) If There is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems by Vera Pavlova (https://www.amazon.com/If-There-Something-Desire-Hundred-ebook/dp/B004V42YO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504351493&sr=8-1&keywords=vera+Pavlova)

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  2. Yes, that’s a great way to get to know people. I’m reading:
    1. An unpublished book on Indian philosophy, written by my sister who passed away eight years ago. It’s amazing, touching, a discovery! I’m sorry I wasn’t interested in this stuff when she was alive, we could have had so many interesting discussions. Now I have to have these conversations in my head.
    2. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham. I never read Grisham when all my friends were reading him in college, and I’m surprised at how well written and gripping it is, though of course one can’t call it literature.

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      1. Thanks, David. It wasn’t as spectacular as ‘finding’. My sister was a true intellectual, who read and enquired and wrote all her life. This book, she completed in the early 90s. I’ve read bits of it but sad to say wasn’t interested enough to read it all. She wasn’t satisfied with it and put it by to rework. Now, with my brother-in-law moving house, the ms surfaced and suddenly it seemed like something I really wanted and needed to read. It is brilliantly lucid, and has a really original approach. We are trying to decide if we should get it published, and how to go about it.

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    2. And to reciprocate, here’s what I’m reading:

      1) Books for Living, Will Schwalbe. (https://www.amazon.com/Books-Living-Will-Schwalbe-ebook/dp/B01FPGY5VI/ref=sr_1_1?)

      2) A Slight Exaggeration: Essays by Adam Zagajewski (https://www.amazon.com/Slight-Exaggeration-Essay-Adam-Zagajewski-ebook/dp/B01M0HR9HZ/ref=sr_1_1?)

      3) Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard (https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Karl-Ove-Knausgaard-ebook/dp/B01N3BU8XE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504351423&sr=8-1&keywords=autumn+by+karl+ove+knausgaard)

      4) If There is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems by Vera Pavlova (https://www.amazon.com/If-There-Something-Desire-Hundred-ebook/dp/B004V42YO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504351493&sr=8-1&keywords=vera+Pavlova)

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      1. Me too David. Unless it is from someone I already know, I would find it a bit intrusive. The exception is when I am sitting next to someone reading a book when I’m traveling and I might ask them if it’s a good read. I don’t mind people asking me then.

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      3. Have always viewed it as a means of gaining a greater understanding of someone, getting to know them better because they are interesting to me. Now I’m wondering if anyone has ever taken offense at my query….

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  6. Love this post! One of my very closest friends and I have been doing this for a long time. Leads me down paths I may not have chosen.
    Happy long weekend, David.😎

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      1. 1. Alex Tizon, Big Little Man.
        After My Family’s Slave from the Guardian came my way and possessed me for days.

        2. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things.
        After I read Durga’s review of Roy’s new book I decided I need to know one of Roy’s older writings first, then her new book.
        3. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves. A book i started a couple of years ago. Just went back to it after finding a stack of hand written excerpts from it.

        4. In Arabic, Anis Ben Ammar, second poetry collection published.

        5. In Arabic, Farouk Gouida, Egyptian poet. After I came accross a YouTube video of him reciting one of his poems.

        Last but not least, you and your blog. On a bad day, that is a day I don’t get to read, I have to make one little stop. And it’s always more than enough soul fuel on words.

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        1. Alex Tizon, Big Little Man.,,,his story, hard to sit it down…gripping…shortly after Mr. Tizon passed away earlier this year I shared a piece of his writing with Dave in an email…

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  8. just finished Magpie Murders (Agatha christie like whodunnit with a modern twist — good light read); The righteous mind (why people get divided by politics and religion – good premise, a bit of a slog); some ken follett book (only because book group is making me read it … not loving the style). Happy Rainy Labor Day Weekend!

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  9. What’s the primary thing you look for and look at when you go to someone’s house for the first time? What books do you see? Are they dusty? Are they brand new ir worn? Are themes apparent? It’s the best possible place to begin a conversation or, for that matter, a relationship.
    Great quote, David!
    Nan Morrissette

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    1. Hey Nan. Thanks. Your thought reminds me of this great must read essay:

      I despair of flats with no books in them at all…..But cleaning in a bookless house is slightly soul-destroying. These are the work all day, work all night, make enough money for a deposit and holiday you can show off on Instagram, no-funsters. And they are dogged in their pursuit – to work as hard as possible, to buy maybe a bigger flat to put no books in.

      ~ Michele Kirsch: My life as a cleaner in London
      As a cleaner, Kirsch brings insights from her writing career to her current job – and reveals some home truths.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/michele-kirsch-my-life-as-a-cleaner-in-london-a6708181.html

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      1. Yep. I used to know those people. However, I never used to BE those people.

        In the early 1970’s I had a lovely, small bookstore, Spectrum Books, in downtown Portland, Maine. (Right across the street from the Portland Museum of Art.) It was a place of great vibes, and many followers from the arts and academic communities, which were all around me. Portland was a welcoming place for a small bookstore back in the days before Borders and B&N etc. Certainly before Amazon. I always think of that shop as the best part of my education, I still have friends I met there as customers.

        Portland has, even now, some excellent indie bookstores; Blue Hill (the next peninsula down from Acadia National Park, has one of the best. If you ever come to Portland, Maine for a visit, let me know – I can share some great places,with you… to eat, to drink wine, to hear live music, to see, to sail, and to read.

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  10. I think most of us wouldn’t mind being polled about what we’re reading. Books are those friends from childhood on, in all our lives, whom we don’t mind sharing at all.

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  11. I think it’s a great question. It’s a way of sharing knowledge and entertainment, and invites conversation and discussion. I’m never offended if someone asks me what I’m reading and am happy to share it, unless it happens to be erotica (haha, just kidding). I just read Guernica by David Boling. Amazing insight into what happened to that Basque town during the Franco days.

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      1. It’s done in a very readable way, using a fictional family to show their lifestyle in those days. That part in itself was wonderful to read about. The author did a great job of combining real historic events and political times with the lives of the family living in the Guernica area. It was a very well written book and very readable. I loved it, except that it did depict some terrible times.

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  12. It is so nice to know what people read… I add some of books to my reading list. Especially I am looking for Adam Zagajewski (translated version for my own language)… I heard this name again in your blog I think. Right now, what I am reading is, standing three books, 1 ) Eduardo Galeano / Women( Mujeres), 2) Georgi Gospodinov / The Physics of Sorrow, 3) George Orwell / 1984 (again reading)

    Thank you, Love, n,a

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