3/10/2007

In Washington Square Park on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Reading Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, recommended by her reading partner. Recently she recommended David Eggars, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, to him. He's been reading a lot of the McSweeney's Quarterlies, which he loves because of the variety--you can have a short somber story next to a goofy letter and everything is generally really good. But, today, he's reading the not as staggering, XML by Example, by Benoit Marchal. He's working on putting a website together. His favorite books are Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises for the contrast between the brokenness of the individuals among the fanfare of the restaurants and bullfights; and Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor and Fight Club.


Her favorite book is Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, or maybe its sequel, Ender's Shadow, which tells the story from the perspective of Bean, Ender's lieutenant.

Something else she's read recently that she liked was East of Eden, by Steinbeck. It's the second time she's read it and this time she was able to pay more attention to the anecdotal parts of it. She said that the second read is usually better in word heavy books like East of Eden, you get more out of it.


Here's Bean, named after the Orson Scott Card character....actually her name is Layla and her middle name is Bean, but she gets called Bean.