Three Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading

Those of you who know me well may have witnessed my frantic obsession with having a stack of yet unread material in the wings. Unfortunately, since I have never been known to savor a book, but rather inhale it much like Tucker (Colleen's cockapoo) does with any table treat set aside for his consumption, I sometimes wonder if the publishing industry can support my backlog. (this is a foolish conceit - I realize that there are a lot of things published that I won't read, due to snobbery [e.g., anything related to Twilight], laziness [any non-fiction, James Joyce, and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest], or fear of commitment [anything part a series greater than 3 books in length] - and for some reason, I just can't bring myself to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society). So when I happen upon a book that I'm willing enough to buy in hardcover to read (I have a whole separate list of books I'm waiting to get to paperback), I'm excited. And when I find three, I'm near apoplectic and run screaming to my nearest web browser and activate my Amazon.com one-click shipping (tm) (this perhaps explains why I'm driving a 12 y.o. gas guzzler with 193,273 miles on it). So here are three books that have exercised my Amex:

Juliet, Naked - by Nick Hornby

I love Nick Hornby's books - but perhaps my favorite is High Fidelity, a music-centric reminiscence of relationships gone wrong. The protagonist owns a record store (my favorite job ever was the $4.75/hr I made at Kemp Mill Records on a moonlighting gig 20 years ago), has no success in relationships, that he lays squarely at the feet of his partners du jour (something I could relate to), without any consideration of the common denominator in all of his love affairs (again, something I could relate to). Juliet, Naked (reviewed, btw, on Pop Matters, one of my daily go-to sites) follows in Hornby's tradition of using music as a plot lubricant, and follows the 15 year old relationship of Duncan and Annie as they embark on a pilgrimage to find a reclusive musician. Duncan's fascination with the recluse leads to a substitution of music for emotion in his relationship with Annie that comes to a head when an acoustic release of the musician's farewell album (the eponymous Juliet, Naked) appears, followed soon by the musician himself. I'm a sucker for novels that tie in music, and even moreso for Hornby's type of humor and male introspection. And I can already imagine my desire to hear the reclusive (and fictional) musician's album.


How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

Another novel reviewed on Pop Matters is How I Became a Famous Novelist. I caught the last few minutes of the author being interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air, and was intrigued. But the Pop Matters review really sealed it for me. In his first novel, Hely (who was a TV writer for shows like American Dad and Letterman) shows the desperation borne out of vengenance (may be too strong a word... is there such as thing as leit vengenance?) a young writer has to become a famous writer. He goes about it through research - not the exhaustive research of his topic, but rather of the attributes of successful (and not neccesarily good) novels. This research gets distilled down into rules (Rule #1 - Abandon Truth... Rule #5 - Must include a 'club'... Rule #12 - Give readers versions of themselves, infused with extra awesomeness) which results in his hopeful best seller - The Tornado Ashes Club. I'm fascinated with what it takes to be a writer and am looking forward to reading a satire of the whole process.

Her Fearful Symmetry - by Audrey Niffenegger

It's only natural that I would anticipate anything new from the author of my favorite book of the last decade - and although I know several that agree with me (if perhaps not to the levels of hyperbole I reach), I also know there are several who don't understand my fawning over The Time Traveler's Wife (and, no - I haven't seen the movie yet). In her sophomore effort, the author places identical twins from Chicago into the home of their recently deceased aunt (whose ghost is still around), next to the Highgate Cemetary in London. As they become involved with their aunt's neighbors, they delve into the mysteries found in the aunt's diaries... okay, okay - I'm failing to build the suspense that drew me to this... but 1) - I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, and 2), from the New Yorker review - 'she has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness'...

So that's what's on my nightstand... (or will be as soon as shipped). How about yours?