What are you reading now?

Right now I'm reading The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway and Song of Susannah (Dark Tower VI) by Stephen King. Both of them humgonous hard-cover editions from the library, too. I had to keep switching hands when I was carrying them home.

The Hemingway stories are incredible, my favorites so far are "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber" on the longer side and "Hills Like White Elephants" on the shorter side. What I really love is how at the beginning they may not make much sense or seem to have a point, but by the end it becomes very clear. This is probably a naive realization on my part, but I haven't read many short stories until recently.

Song of Susannah is, as all the Dark Tower books have been for me, a real page-turner. It's somewhat thick, but I've blasted through more than half of it in only a few days. Probably the most notable thing about the book, though, is that King has the balls to use himself as a character in it. It's fantastically self-indulgent, but I think he pulled it off really well, and it's been appropriately built up to.

How ya doing, buddy?

Just started A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner. Her writing definitely brings to mind Henry James (and apparently Jane Austen, though I've never read anything of hers), with loads of great insight into the minds of the characters.

There's nowhere I can't reach.