Books-a-Million asked several authors a few holiday and literary questions. Dean Kootz says he reads “The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor” frequently, just to give you one interesting detail.
Books-a-Million asked several authors a few holiday and literary questions. Dean Kootz says he reads “The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor” frequently, just to give you one interesting detail.
Interesting.
I’m reading Edwin O’Connor’s “The Edge of Sadness”.
After Thanksgiving Day I always read Katherine Patterson’s Christmas short stories. Every year, it seems more and more like I just read them DAYS ago, not a year ago.
And he likes The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane , one of the most-moving books I’ve ever read.
Did you see Cussler’s great malapropism:
What is your earliest holiday memory?
Waking up Christmas morning after being brought home from the hospital after nearly dying from phenomena when I was six years old.
Phenomena: leading cause of death among individuals.
My current nightstand stack includes
Selected Writings of Martin Luther 1517-1520 (I’m in the middle of his Treatise on Good Works.)
The Brothers Karamozov (Got half way through earlier in the year and lost momentum)
August 1914 by Alexander Solzenhytzn
Autobiography of Fanny Crosby
A couple of random Louis L’Amour westerns
A Voice in the Wilderness – The best of Joseph Bayly (Includes I Saw Gooley Fly and The Gospel Blimp along with a collection of columns from his years as editor of Eternity magazine.
In the car, I just finished the audio book version of Sea of Glory about four chaplains on the USAT Dorchester when it was sunk by a sub off Greenland in WWII. Very inspiring but I think maybe they were lionized a bit much.
Alice Thomas Ellis’s The Sin Eater
rereading Flannery O’Connor’s stories myself, as I haven’t done in many years
The Hobbit, again, with my children
The Rule of Saint Benedict, off and on, again with my children
I put myself through Brothers Karamazov last year, and have, with many fits and starts, been reading The Divine Comedy. We moved three months ago, and I’m still unpacking book boxes and at least starting to read whatever comes out of the boxes . . .
I should have said, “The children and I are reading The Hobbit again. We are also reading The Rule of Saint Benedict together.” The latter we have not read again and again and again and again, as we have the former.
The Brothers Karamozov (Got half way through earlier in the year and lost momentum)
I did too, though maybe it was the year before. I was disappointed that I didn’t find the imagined conversation with the devil compelling. I haven’t written it off yet though.
The most enjoyable book I ‘read’ the past year, was an audio edition of ‘Pickwick Papers’ by Charles Dickens. The narrator was a Patrick Tull, and he did a fantastic job. (I’d read it many years ago; I think about half of it.) This was one of those rare cases where an audio version was far superior to ‘simply’ reading the story. A great treat.
– I greatly enjoyed ‘Nightside the Long Sun’ by Gene Wolfe. This is one of his most accessible novels; and very funny to boot. (Beware; it’s volume one of four… and I have to admit he does, at times, seem to pad things out too much.)
– the book I’m reading now is ‘The mind at night’ by Andrea Block. This is a book on dreams; and although it’s marred by too much Darwinian speculation… it’s fascinating.
Interesting about Koontz. Any rumours he is a believer of any sort?
Yes, there is a rumor. He at least has some religious understanding, but I don’t know what more than that. I thought Lars had linked to an interview a while back, but I didn’t find it just now.
Koontz identifies himself as a practicing Roman Catholic. I get the impression his devotion has increased in recent years.