What I'm Reading (September 10, 2024)

Yesterday, I finished Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Which, for a book published in 1928, was shockingly transgressive. (See forthcoming book review for my thoughts.)

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Orlando is the 'biography' of the eponymous main character, Orlando: a poetic and deeply introspective English aristocrat who changes sex, has numerous exploits, and lives for three-and-a-half centuries before the book ends in the year 1928, as Orlando grapples in a trippy manner with all of the selves she is, was, and has ever been. It is unlike anything I have read before, and I highly recommend it. Among other achievements, it is, as of the time of writing, ranked 57th on the Harvard Book Store Staff's Favorite 100 Books. While I do not know anyone on or affiliated with the Harvard Book Store staff, they tend to recommend books that I enjoy reading. And isn't that what it's all about?

Since I'm done, however, an old question presents itself: what to read next?

After scouring my parent's bookshelves and consulting various reading lists, I have a number of potential candidates:

(1) The Houseguest by Amparo Davila;

(2) I, Robot by Isaac Asimov; and

(3) Middlemarch by George Eliot.

While I would be happy to read any of them, Eliot's Middlemarch has been on my reading list for some time, and I would be excited to finally begin it. That said, the version of the book I have is pushing 900 pages, and I'm just not sure if a 900-page book is calling my name. We shall see.

This has been my first post, and I'm beyond excited to post more book reviews, general thoughts on words and prose, and content relating in any way to reading and reading!