DELHI, INDIA
Books I've read in the past month:
A Magick Life: A Biography of Aleister Crowley by Martin Booth: A very matter-of-fact biography of a very off-the-wall person. I only knew a little about Crowley before reading this, so it was a shock to find out that most of what I "knew" was wrong! Crowley was an odd duck, for sure, but apparently he wasn't ever a Satanist or a devil-worshipper. Who knew? And I didn't realize he was an accomplished mountain-climber, either. Mostly he was an incredibly charismatic showman with a huge ego and a wicked sense of humor, marred by some unfortunate likeability issues and a difficult personality. He was also a sad victim of some awful tabloid slanders--many years before that sort of thing became commonplace. Fascinating stuff.
East of the Mountains by David Guterson: This is the second novel from the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, and it's very good as well. It's a little depressing, as it's about a man who's dying of cancer, but the journey he takes through the countryside of the Pacific Northwest is a healing and redeeming one, so it has a real bittersweet feeling.
The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin: A slightly more "serious" novel from the author of the Tales of the City series and the excellent Maybe the Moon. Maupin's a great storyteller, and it's interesting how all his books seem to combine fiction and truth--it's hard to know in this story how much is autobiographical, and how much is made-up, and in fact he really plays with that idea throughout the story. Sometimes Maupin's perspective is a little too middle-aged-gay-man-in-San-Francisco for my tastes, but it's still a good read.
Books I've read in the past month:
A Magick Life: A Biography of Aleister Crowley by Martin Booth: A very matter-of-fact biography of a very off-the-wall person. I only knew a little about Crowley before reading this, so it was a shock to find out that most of what I "knew" was wrong! Crowley was an odd duck, for sure, but apparently he wasn't ever a Satanist or a devil-worshipper. Who knew? And I didn't realize he was an accomplished mountain-climber, either. Mostly he was an incredibly charismatic showman with a huge ego and a wicked sense of humor, marred by some unfortunate likeability issues and a difficult personality. He was also a sad victim of some awful tabloid slanders--many years before that sort of thing became commonplace. Fascinating stuff.
East of the Mountains by David Guterson: This is the second novel from the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, and it's very good as well. It's a little depressing, as it's about a man who's dying of cancer, but the journey he takes through the countryside of the Pacific Northwest is a healing and redeeming one, so it has a real bittersweet feeling.
The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin: A slightly more "serious" novel from the author of the Tales of the City series and the excellent Maybe the Moon. Maupin's a great storyteller, and it's interesting how all his books seem to combine fiction and truth--it's hard to know in this story how much is autobiographical, and how much is made-up, and in fact he really plays with that idea throughout the story. Sometimes Maupin's perspective is a little too middle-aged-gay-man-in-San-Francisco for my tastes, but it's still a good read.
posted by John Kuge at 9:30 AM
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