Two Sundays have passed without me posting a Sunday Salon. I haven’t finished a book since then either because it is the last month of classes, and I am stressed and a bit sick too. The Salons until April will be rather sparse, but I have made some decisions in my reading habits. With the summer holiday coming up (and my imminent graduation), I am going to attempt to read as many unread books that I own this year. I know many people make that promise, and I do too, but I am more serious and dedicated. Similarly, I am trying to avoid buying yarn compulsively and knitting with my sizable stash. 2008 is a year of endings and beginnings or at least transitions. I’m going to declutter my life a bit and explore all the things I do own.I digress. Here are the reading updates. I have been reading Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The former is 1200 pages and the latter is less than 200.  I’ve been reading CoMC through DailyLit, but I fell behind this week. I caught up just now and am midway through chapter 5.  That’s less than 50p in the Penguin Classics edition which I have from the library. Yes, I do have a hard copy, but I hardly have time to read as it is. I intend to read it normally once I have time in April. I am enjoying it so far. The good thing about Dumas is that there is a lot of dialogue in his writing so it seems the writing goes by quickly, and yet his books are still quite large. It is still early to tell how well this novel will be paced even though I already know most of the plot point and the ending.

Today, I also went past halfway through One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I’m not sure what I think about this book. It’s not boring, but it’s not exciting either. The prose is good, but I think I’m a bit wary of reading depressing books right now. I am afraid I won’t have much to say about it when I review it. Hopefully the ending gives me things to ponder.

It’s barely the afternoon, but I am going to have to focus on other things and then take a nap.

Literary Links:

The Twenty Science Fiction Novels That Will Change Your Life – Well, maybe not my life, but some of these look very intriguing.

Top 10 Undercover Economics Books – My love/hate relationship with econ continues. Apparently Robert Frost can help me understand opportunity cost.

50 Crime Writers to Read Before You Die – Haven’t read much crime myself, but Telegraph’s list looks good.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman – Not my favourite Gaiman work, but still good and a free novel online so woot.

Planet eBook – Even though I don’t really read them that often, I am always in support of books as public goods. The PDFs on this site seem better than other ebook sites.

International Digital Children’s Library – free children books from all around the world.

30 of the Most Creative Bookshelf Designs and Bookcase Bedroom