What Am I Reading Now

Whenever I find the open time to do something enjoyable, I like to sit somewhere peaceful and read a book. Even when I find open time during my work schedule or am going somewhere with which empty time makes up part of the equation, reading is the way I generally fulfill that open gap. Unfortunately, due to my busy English major based college schedule, finding time to read for pleasure is not necessarily common in this point in time. We're assigned work to closely read and then analyze in a particular fashion. We're also assigned passages to read in a text book that increase understanding of what happens to lie ahead. Fortunately, I am seeking every possible opportunity to read what I enjoy, whether it's considered "class material" or "casual material."

If there's a novel that I have my primary focus on at the moment we speak, it's Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I'm currently taking a history class having to do with Soviet Russia, which covers the status of the country from the Russian Revolution onward. While I have made it a goal to read more Russian literature (which includes Great Russian Short Stories published by Dover Thrift and edited by Paul Negri), I am also required to write a book review and have been given the honor of doing a powerpoint presentation on 20th century Russian literature. Pasternak is a definitely cover, for Doctor Zhivago was a key and controversial work when it was released in 1957. The novel was released in Italy, then in the United States before it was even released in Russia. When nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, Pasternak was put in a difficult situation to the point in which he had to turn down the honorable award. We'll just have to see how this novel turns out.

For my casual read, I still have Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry on my "to finish" list. I started reading it last year, put it down to finish later, picked it back up to continue, then had to put it down due to the flow of the semester. I find Maberry's work to be exciting and he doesn't hold back any punches. We'll just have to see how well it concludes. Another delay may come from what I read to prepare for Literary Gladiators, which will depend on when and how we tape the web show. I'm in the process of finding a time to re-tape some episodes that were lost. Maberry's novel will be the first light read I get back to when I'm able.

Aside from these two, I also have a collection of Anne Sexton's poetry and James Joyce's Dubliners to get to, while I'm making an effort to get my hands on The Fault in our Stars by John Green to read during the year. I've heard so many positive things about that novel from just about anybody I have had a literary discussion with. In addition to these, a goal of mine is to read some work from those I know and want to promote as being a lesser known author that deserves recognition.

I am making the effort to submit some more posts to my blog within the upcoming year, which will include some short story and poem reviews, along with plenty of other offerings that have to do with literature. Whether or not I read exactly what I mentioned above in that order and before anything else I didn't mention is something I cannot promise, but this is what floats through my head as we speak. As I end most of my web shows: Keep Reading!