I'm almost halfway through Ian McEwan's Atonement and I'm afraid of reading further. I worry over Robbie and Cecilia. More Robbie than Cecilia. I'm starting to hate Briony to bits. But more than that I could see through Lola. The gall of that girl blaming the twins! I don't want to finish the story yet, not yet! But I have to keep on reading later. No matter how much it pains me to see how it would all unfold. I could see where it is heading - disaster at the very least - and pain magnified a hundredfold, maybe more. I'm the one at fault; I've read a McEwan before and it turned my insides out.

So this is not a book review, not yet anyway. To those who have read the book I am now at the point where the cast of characters set out to find the twins in the garden. There's that sense of foreboding evil with the last statement:

This decision, as he was to acknowledge many times, transformed his life.

But more on Atonement when I'm done with it.

I'm also reading Terry Pratchett's Pyramids. Teppic's now the king and learning the ropes of well, being king and making sure the sun rises in Djelibeybi while Ptaclusp and his two sons bicker about the biggest pyramid they are going to build ever for the now deceased King Teppicymon XXVII. Frankly I still don't know where it is heading but it takes my mind off Robbie's impending doom. Plus, it's making me laugh.

I think I will reserve another time for Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude. It's not calling to me yet. I had to put it down after ten pages or so. It needs focus. I should take it off my Bedside Reading list. I didn't have that reading experience when I perused Motherless Brooklyn last year which I enjoyed immensely. That was a very good book. I think I haven't posted about that either. Gee, I don't think I posted much about most of the books I read last year. My bad. Hopefully I can post about last year's backlogs eventually.

And well, I just have to go through Martin Amis' London Fields. It's one of my picks for the What's In A Name Challenge hosted by Annie. But it's such a daunting read - it's a very thick book to begin with - and I loved the first five paragraphs a lot:

This is a true story but I can't believe it's really happening.

It's a murder story too, I can't believe my luck.

And a love story (I think), of all strange things, so late in the century, so late in the goddamned day.

This is a story of a murder. It hasn't happened yet. But it will. (It had better.) I know the murderer, I know the murderee. I know the time, I know the place. I know the motive (her motive) and I know the means. I know who will be the foil, the fool, the poor foal, also utterly destroyed. And I couldn't stop them, I don't think, even if I wanted to. The girl will die. It's what she always wanted. You can't stop people, once they start. You can't stop people once they start creating.

What a gift. This page is briefly stained by my tears of gratitude. Novelists don't usually have it so good, do they, when something real happens (something unified, dramatic and pretty saleable), and they just write it down?

Funny that I probably own three or more of the author's work but haven't gotten around to reading them. I buy them because of the back-of-the-book outline. After reading those I have felt the pull of my wallet, like I'm hypnotized and the next thing I know I'm inside the train clutching his work close to my chest with a receipt taped to it showing I indeed paid for it.

I've picked up Augusten Burrough's Running With Scissors the other day and read Something Isn't Right. Sigh. I love reading this guy. He's so real and at the same time so laughingly funny and yet pensive at the same time.

Me and my reading life for the moment.

My heartfelt thanks to those who dropped by through Dewey's Weekly Geek Challenge. I really appreciate the enthusiasm and so far I think I've left a comment or two as well in your respective blogs. Feel free to browse through my reading archives because I've nothing new to post today except this rambling about my Bedside Reading. Hahaha!

I still have a lot of things to finish outside my reading and blogging life so hopefully I get to start visiting blogs within the week and post about the experience before the deadline.

Have a great week to all of you!