[News] What are you currently reading?

There are certainly a lot of books listed here in this thread's three and a half years of life that I have to check out. American Gods is one I've been looking at for some time now; now I'm definitely gonna have to pick that up.

Glad to see fans of the classics here as well. Agent Marty, your posts about Steinbeck have gotten me excited to finally read East of Eden. It's one I've set aside for a rainy day. Fitzgerald is another I have some serious catching up to do with.

Heya Vamp, have you managed to finish Moby Dick? I'm curious to know what you think of it.

As for myself, I'm currently reading The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. It's a short and easy read so far, likely because it's written in the first person from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy. The basic plot is about an odd group of three siblings whose parents die and they are left to bicker and mindlessly drift around and, occasionally, take care of each other over the course of a summer. It doesn't really try to be anything of a tragic tale; the real meat of the novel is about the interaction of the boy with his two sisters, the eldest of which he has developed a sort of carnal attraction to. I love stories which utilize such unconventional and deviant behaviors. Also, the general coming of age genre really resonates with me.

An ebook version is available here if anyone's interested in downloading it.

I am also halfway through Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - The Untold History of English by John McWhorter. I have a great interest in linguistics and love learning about any language. It's less a history of English as it is about the author's attempts to argue that English acquired some of it's commonplace grammar from a few Celtic languages during its "Old English" stage, a view which apparently isn't commonly accepted.

Jam it back in, in the dark.