Heavy reading

Lately I've been devouring (figuratively) books... I don't know whether I just happened to pick a few easy reads or good reads or what... but a week ago I ordered 5 books from Amazon and I am already starting on #4.

I've already mentioned La Bella Figura, which was as very fun to read. I also read Severgnini's other book, Ciao America. which was also fun. More interesting was that he wrote the book while living in Georgetown for a year. Having him mention the Safeway, Volta Park, and many other little G-town landmarks made the book that much more relatable for me. I think that he didn't quite get Americans as much as he thought he did (but then, is that even possible) but still it's a fun little insight into a foreigner's perception of, well, us.

Finally, I've just finished re-reading Camus's The Stranger. It is one of a long list of books that I was "forced" to read in high school that I have wanted to revisit as an adult. It was a stunningly easy and fast read, so much so that I was worried that I was breezing through it too quickly. Being older, taking the time to think about what was going on in the main character's mind - how he could think and philosophize the ideas that he believed - gave me a renewed appreciation for the book.

I am now reading book #4 from my most recent Amazon order: Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. I am a huge Hemingway fan (the title of this blog is a famous line from The Sun also Rises) and a huge fan of Italy, so this was a natural choice. I'm only about 30 pages in, but I cannot wait for the train ride home and the flight to FL on Friday to really sink my mind into the book.

The last book on my "list" is The House of Medici: It's Rise and Fall. Considering the types of books I've been reading lately, I can't figure out why I didn't enjoy undergrad history classes, or indeed even high school English and history classes, a lot more than I did.