I had to do some re-reading in preparation for the classes I'm teaching, and just finished "The Catcher in the Rye." I haven't read it in about 13 years, but I still liked it.
Spent yesterday in the Santa Monica Public Library re-reading Reyner Banham's "Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies." Banham defends LA heavily against Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford et al.--the anti-sprawlists, and celebrates LA as "autotopia," and the home to major works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and re-located Bauhaus architects. It's a fairly quick read, considering it treats an entire history of urban planning, and is really witty and charming. Banham wrote the book "Brutalism: Ethics or Aesthetics," on which I based my entire senior thesis in 2006, and which I'll be damned if I can remember anything about now.
Just started Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy with the first volume, "Titus Groan." This is one of those series of books I should have read as a child, when I was reading Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series (and of course LOTR, please don't hate me), but I never made it. Here's hoping it's good, though!