Currently Reading

I've just finished reading two wonderful novellas by Banana Yoshimoto. 'Hardboiled' follows a young woman after the break up of a relationship and Hard Luck follows another young woman after the death of her sister as she befriends the brother of her sister's fiance. Both are beautifully written and full of autumn, falling leaves, cold clear air. Very seasonal.

I'm now reading Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, a physicist and writer. This small book is a collection of imaginary dreams dreamt by Einstein as he worked on his Theory of Relativity. Each short fable looks at the essence of time from a different angle, imagining how it would affect people's lives in Berne, where Einstein was living when he was working on the Theory of Relativity. It is a stunning book, that makes the reader really think about how we perceive time and also how we should use time. How in fact we should live.

At the same time I am very slowly reading Kafka's Das Schloß in German. To find out more about that book, visit my Alter Ego blog here. (Sorry, I'm having difficulties with permalinks at the moment, so you'll need to scroll down a wee bit!).