Tag: Donna Tartt

World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, here is my list of favorite books.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Help for the Haunted by John Searles

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

Open by Andre Agassi

Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Ready Player One by Ernest Kline

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

What are your favorite books?

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Rereading a Classic: Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

Some books need to be thought about as much as read.

I recently read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt for the second time. It’s about a boy who loses his mother in a terrorist attack, who is then taken in by a friend’s family in NYC and later his estranged father in Las Vegas. Stolen artwork is involved, and he eventually becomes a drug addict while discovering the shady underworld of antiques and art dealing.

It had probably been six years since I last read it, while I was an undergraduate in college. I flew through it the first time; always anxious to get to my next book in those days. Now I take my time when I read, although I still get through a lot of material. I give myself time to think about what I’m reading instead of flying past commas, periods and dialogue. I didn’t retain as much as I do now, which is one reason I wanted to read it again. When I started rereading the book, I recalled the first 75%, but everything after that was new.

The other reason I wanted to read it again is because it’s a great book (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in fiction). Donna Tartt is an excellent writer. She’s in the running to write my obituary and epitaph. Her stories are intriguing, which can’t be said about all books with literary merit. Tartt is my second favorite author after Haruki Murakami.

If nothing else, hopefully this post will give you a new book to add to your collection.