Sunday, January 3, 2016

Dan's a Reader, Too

Hello all!

I am Dan. I am a writer, amongst other things, living in Los Angeles.  The main thing you need to know about me is I never make up fake description about myself when posting in book blogs, a fact which I think separates me from the occasional liar that pops up on these things.  Hopefully, none of that occurs in this club.

In 2015, I tried to read more genre work.  I flirted with my first spy novel (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), my first hard sci-fi (Red Mars), etc. but in 2016, there will be no rules. I have a queue of books that I plan to hit up in these first few weeks, but after that, I'm open to suggestions.

I am currently reading: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

After that: The First Bad Man by Miranda July
Hotel Living by Ioannis Pappos
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

As for my favorites, I will post them, but a caveat must precede: I cannot and will not say that what follows is a comprehensive top-5 list because that would take months of soul searching to whittle down to, but it should give you a little taste of the type of literature I like to put my peepers on:
Handmaid's Tale - Atwood
Flesh and Blood - Cunningham
The Year of Magical Thinking - Didion
A Light in the Attic - Silverstein
And the best book I read last year, East of Eden by John Steinbeck

50 books is really daunting to me.  The motivation style I respond best to is negative reinforcement, so if I slip behind, I hope you will be unrelentingly horrible to me. 

So excited, so excited, so...scared,
Dan

2 comments:

  1. People who troll book blogs for a laugh are monsters.

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  2. I'm so glad you listed East of Eden. It is hands down my favorite Steinbeck and a gut punch of an emotional journey. I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Big Sleep!

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