January 5, 2008 -- Saturday evening

Reading Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. It's based on the author's life--an Australian bank robber/heroin addict who was sentenced to prison and escaped to Bombay.

It's a good book, he said, but admitted to not really liking the character. He picked it up on vacation in Taos, New Mexico--it was recommended by three women at a bookstore he was browsing. He never got to reading it in New Mexico, but read most of it on his next vacation, in New Zealand where, incidentally, part of the story takes place. When the author escapes to Bombay, he does so via New Zealand.

Favorite book--A Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. What makes it good? It's so real, and it's a powerful story. I was mildly reprimanded for not having read it. It's only a hundred-fifty pages! he told me.

I'll go to the library tomorrow.