December 2006 - What are you Reading?

Ok, I know - as if there's time! But I'm guessing whether or not you're reading, books are on your mind. Gift ideas, anyone?

I've got several books on my bedside table just waiting for me to plunge in... there's "Saving Fish from Drowning," by Amy Tan, and that little gem "Blue Arabesque" by Patricia Hampl.  Then there's a travel book for Italy that I save for when I need some hardcore daydreaming material.

So if you find a moment to escape the holiday madness, what will you pick up? Is there a book you discovered this year which you're going to give to multiple friends and relatives?

Another book landed on my desk recently that intrigued me ...it's called 'bookworm' and it features the artwork of Rosamund Purcell. Purcell explores the beauty of the decaying book, and how it's new forms suggest an alternate literary universe. The images reveal pages turned into mouse nests, or meshed with leaves and grass...in some pictures, books become bricks, while in others stones become books.  Insects are pinned to the pages of a German bible, or the word "transfigured" peers out dimly from a page that's been warped by fire and water. For me it's a mystical exploration of our relationships to books, how we fetishize them as containers of wisdom, relics of the past, and clues to finding an Answer. The images are haunting, evocative, and often disturbing...but all are beautiful.

 Enough of my ranting for now - what are you reading? What books are you giving? More importantly, what have books given you lately?