Tell me, what is on your reading desk at the moment?

Just now, I am reading Reflections on Exile by Edward Said. I discovered him when I was working with a friend on Voices of Other, a collection of essays on exile.

I’m also reading Slow Man by Coetzee. It had taken a year for me to read that book, not because it is boring, but because the author goes so deep into the mind of his character, and the relationship he (platonically) has with his nurse… that I was inspired in-between to write or read something else. This had never happened to me before. Slow Man is not the best work of Coetzee, I think. I read everything he wrote, but this book is different — the protagonist’s dry personality is so familiar to me that I got very curious: how would a man like him fall in love? What propels him into action? Most of the time, he is thinking (unless he is bicycling), but after the accident he doesn’t “move” anymore, at least not in the same way.

I also have the American Heritage College Thesaurus. A great treat!

At the same time, I’m reading Parallel and Paradoxes by Said. Very interesting book about society and music, and how music can heal or help communication. To a huge extent, music is a tool that helps us to communicate. I don’t get the entire point of the book, since it is an interview with Daniel Barenboim and Ara Guzelimian, but it is Said who interests me. When I discover a writer, I don’t jump into a new book by another.

As a reader, I’m a different in the sense that while I often see the bookshelves of friends with one book of many authors, mine comprises of many books — in some cases, all the books — of one author. How can someone understand a writer’s mind with one book?

In any case, both Coetzee and Said are very prolific; I had been reading Coetzee for years. Said is somebody new to me. I also discovered not so long ago Charles Simic. I was visiting a friend in Boston who had all of Simic’s books. I took one, and could not stop reading. I thought he was good. I had often heard his name in poetry circles, but never bought one of his books, until now. I read many authors at one time; I can too, read many of their books at one time. Of the poet friends, I really enjoy writings by Ilya Kaminsky, Franz Wright, Raul Zurita, and Alicia Ostriker.