I always feel there are some books or some authors that I "should" be reading, but nibbling away at the book list in my head is an endless process. Over the last year or two I finally read a couple of Thomas Pynchon books (one of them, Vineland, for the reading group here) and now I am reading Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, a work I have never attempted before.
After I did a bit of background reading on the Internet, I tried the first chapter but felt utterly lost. Oz Fritz had an extra copy of the book A Reader's Guide to 'Finnegans Wake' by William York Tindall, and he kindly sent it to me. It has been very useful.
I got through the first chapter switching back and forth every few pages between the two books, but it seemed like a clumsy and unsatisfactory way to read a book. For the second chapter of the Wake, I tried reading Tindall's chapter first, then reading the Wake chapter all the way through. I found that way I (more or less) felt like I knew what was going on and I also could relax and enjoy the puns. So I will see if that approach works for the subsequent chapters.
I participated in Free Comic Book Day yesterday and picked out four titles. I also finished The Infinite Mistress by D. Scott Apel. I think it is fair to say I try to read a wide variety of books.
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