Mags, Angier, Huxley, Diaz, Kaye

It appears I'll have a whole 24 hours to do nothing but read, something I used to do all the time, but have done much less recently.

I read an issue of The New Yorker, The New Scientist and Vanity Fair since my last post.

I also finished Angier's biography of Primo Levi. I disliked the habit of her telling the story of the information she got, from time to time, but I understand her dilemma at being given information she could not verify. I read Nellie's letters in Elspeth Huxley's memoir, and I read Kaye's Far Pavilions, which was of historiographical interest, rather than earth-shattering in originality. I am now about 50 pages into Diaz's Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which is quite original in feel. I also read a book about Winfield House, the residence of the US Ambassador to the Court of Saint James. It was a picture book, but luxuriously photographed. I had read a biography of Barbara Hutton a few years ago, and she was the heiress who donated this extraordinary house to the US for an Embassy, and it interesting to see where she had lived.