August 1, 2006

Summer Reading

I'm not much good for reading fiction, except that sometimes during times when I'm on the road a lot like this part of the summer. It's nice to have something to read on trains and planes. Also, for some reason I've gotten into the habit of reading The Catcher in the Rye each winter. I don't know why; it seems very funny to me in some way.

During this trip I've been reading Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. It's a lot of fun. I only mention it as an addendum to my comments on The Da Vinci Code. Foucault's Pendulum strikes me as what Dan Brown's book might be like if it was not only about mystery but mysterious itself, wasn't so tediously linear, and actually had interesting characters.

But I warn you, it's a little hard to figure out what Foucault's Pendulum is actually about, or even to follow the plot. Nevertheless, the language and construction is a joy.

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