Generally I like to read 2 or 3 books at once.  Well, not all at once, but you know, switch between several as I read.  So I’ve started 3 on my list and below is a summary of my impressions thus far:

1.  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan:  when I first started reading this and he started going off about the ‘lipid hypothesis’, I was like, Oh, boy – major snooze-fest.  But since it’s on my list, I didn’t immediately post it on Swaptree – I plowed on.  And it’s gotten much more interesting.   The section I’m reading now is about the so-called ‘Western diet’ – its origins and why it’s not good for people, even Westerners.  I believe the last section of the book which I’m close to approaching, has his recommendations about what one should eat, and I think that should be interesting too.  I’m about halfway done.

2.  Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard:  again when I first started this, I was a tad skeptical.  My first thought was, This is just like the movie – I’m not going to get anything out of this at all. But again, I soldiered on, and it’s actually gotten better too.  The movie always struck me as painting a little too rosy picture of life in Japanese-occupied China during World War II.  I mean, Rape of Nanking, anyone?  But the book seems quite a bit darker.  Which suits me just fine.

3.  So after the slow starts to these 2 above-mentioned books, I just had to go for something that I had no doubt would be good.  So I reached for A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, an author whose imagination and wit never let me down.  (If only I knew Japanese and didn’t have to read in translation – I can only imagine how much more amazing his works could be.)  So he hasn’t disappointed.  I haven’t gotten too far in this, but I know it’ll be pretty awesome.  This is on Larisa’s list too, so I won’t go into the plot or anything, so I don’t ruin it for her.

So I’m planning to be done with one of these in the coming week.  At that time, I’ll post again.

Samara