It’s been a very good week of reading for me. I finished High Fidelity and Lipstick Jihad, both books that I enjoyed very much, although for very different reasons. Lipstick Jihad reignited by interest in learning more about the Iranian Revolution, and I finally decided to do something about it. I ventured to our enormous campus libraries to find a book about the history of Iran and ended up getting Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos by Patrick Clawson and Michael Rubin. It’s pretty short — only 150 pages — and one of the more current books I saw, so I think it’ll serve it’s purpose.
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While navigating the thousands of shelves, I also picked up the next two books for Citizen Reader’s Book Menage: Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser and The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. I’ve never participated in a menage before, but the basic idea is that those participating read two related books, then Citizen Reader hosts a discussion about the books.
I was inspired to try this one because of a potential real-life meet up for bloggers that live in or around Madison (where I live)! That sounds awesome, so now I just need to make time to read the books. I figured out that if I read one chapter or essay per day, I can finish both books in 29 days, which is just a few days before March 23 when the discussion starts. Cool, right?
Anyway, that’s all for today. Happy Sunday (for a little bit longer anyway)!
P.S. My sister and I just booked plane tickets for our Spring Break trip to San Francisco, I’m so excited!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
A trip to San Francisco sounds wonderful. Make sure to take your camera.
Hi Kim. I haven’t heard of a book menage before, but it sounds cool. I love the name of Lipstick Jihad. It sounds an interesting book. Have a nice trip of San Fran.
Make sure your bring plenty of sweatshirts to San Francisco! We went there in the summer and thought it would be warm! Haha!
bermudaonion: Definitely. My sister is an architecture major, so we’re planning to visit some cool buildings and stuff around the city — great pictures!
Inkpot: I haven’t done the book menage either, but it sounds like fun. Lipstick Jihad is good, I’m struggling to review it though because I don’t quite know what to say.
Sarah: Thanks for the tip! I’m a freeze baby, so sweatshirts will be a must.
If you haven’t read Among the Believers by V.S. Naipaul you should to get excellent insight into the Iranian Revolution. Naipaul was traveling through Iran in 1979 during the revolution.
We went to SF for the 1st anniversary of my 39th bday
I highly recommend something touristy but fun – rent bikes and bike across the Golden Gate bridge then up to Tiburon for lunch. You can take the ferry back so you don’t have to bike both ways.
Book Menage sounds great–I hope you get to do the meet-up! I’m glad you enjoyed High Fidelity. I liked it (and other Nick Hornby) more than I expected to.
theexile: Great, thank you for the recommendation. I’ve always wanted to learn more about Iran, but tend to get overwhelmed at the number of choices.
Dawn: Ooo, that sounds great! My sister and I have started making some tentative plans, Fisherman’s Wharf and that sort of thing, but biking sounds like fun if I can convince her to do it
alirambles: I liked High Fidelity more than I expected too — it’s funny how much I related to a thirtysomething, single, British record store ownder.
Oh good! I’m glad you will be participating in the BookMenage! (I’m still thinking about it… I’m feeling too stressed about what I want to read and no being motivated to read anything.)
Yes, thank you for pointing me back to it! I’ve really enjoyed Dangerous Laughter so far — I’d recommend it!