What are you reading just now and what can you learn from the reading?

Raindrop said:

I've just read The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I loved it. It's fresh and funny in spite of the heavy themes, but at times, well, there's something so obviously wrong with that kid that I just wanted to hug him. And I loved the mixing tapes. I actually must do a Charlie playlist.

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That is one of my favorite YA novels of all time! I saw the movie first, so I wasn't sure if the book would be as interesting after already knowing the story, but I liked it even better. The whole thing is only a little over 200 pages, but it feels so rich and well-developed. I loved how he handled the darker themes and balanced them out with the humor.

Exactly! If Wallflower isn't considered a classic yet, it should be. God knows it's old enough by now.

We caught the tail-end of tapes, and mixing tapes for friends was a huge part of our lives. G. was the specialist of awesome playlists, while M. was the best live DJ we'd ever had (OK the only one); I was good at making pretty tape covers, cutting bits of magazines and pasting them together. We tried it with CDs afterwards, and they did change hands too, but it wasn't quite the same.

William T Vollmann's Whores For Gloria. I don't know if there's much I can learn from it, other than it's a very fine line between meaningful art and pornography.

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates. It has quite an unusual layout and it's not the sort of thing I'd normally read but I'm really enjoying it. Sometimes it helps to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

MAGGIE SMITH: A BIOGRAPHY. I'm not learning a damn thing about writing from it, unless I manage to absorb some of Dame Maggie's wit. But it's enjoyable and interesting without being too distracting--in other words, an ideal free-time read for me as I settle into a new first draft.