An Update

I have completed 17 books thus far this year. It is almost disconcerting to ponder that passage of time, the tumult of the seasons, the labrynth of each specific day floating into the undifferntiated. here's the list:

1) Civil War Narrative Vol 1 - Foote
2)Plot Against America - Roth
3)The Newton Letter - Banville
4) Cubano Be Cubano Bop
5)Men at Arms - Waugh
6)Cloud Atlas - Mitchell
7)Shiloh - Foote
8) Wild Berries -- Yetevshencko
9)Conversations with Shelby Foote
10)Kafka On The Shore - Murakami
11)Line of Beauty - Holinghurst
12)Incredibly Loud and Terribly Close - Foer
13)Chechnya
14)Correspondence of Foote and Percy
15) Rose garden of Martyrs
16)Magic Mountain - Mann
17)Final Solution - Chabon

It appears that Mr Foote has featured heavily in this year's program. It is also certain that I am reading much more nonfiction than is normal. The three books that I am reading at this exact moment are all nonfiction: Mr Lincoln's Army by Catton, Gulag by Applebaum and Collapse by Diamond. I would also say that the Mitchell and the Murakami were the best novels I have read this year, with Thomas Mann appearing regal with the bronze. Once I finish the Catton (today?) I will try to focus on the Applebaum. the problem with her text remains that while Martin Amis wrote a similar book 3 years ago (Koba the Dread), he is a masterful author and the ongoing issue is that both texts rely so heavily upon Robert Conquest and of the survivor's memoirs. Why not read Conquest and the memoirs? Somehow Mr Foote and the fate of Gettysburg has drifted out of focus. Collapse is proving to be an adroit text, but one that I fear I am blazing through, like his oft-studied conflagrations of late summer.