January 17, 2008 -- Thursday evening

Reading Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, prompted by seeing Sweeney Todd.

A favorite book--Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. He likes it for the prose, the setting, the historical context. It's a book anyone can relate to, and it's a book that offers an escape. He read it six years ago, in the winter, shortly after moving into a new apartment and he remembers reading it on rainy nights.

Something good he read lately--Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart. It was fun, quick, lighthearted. He heard about it when it was listed as a New York Times Notable Book.

When he was growing up he liked The Godfather, by Mario Puzo; as well as books by Grisham, and Crichton.