What I've been reading.

Watchmen, Alan Moore.  Maybe I've spent too much time away from comic books, but heck, I'm going to come out and say it. The ending required too much willing suspension of disbelief. I was perfectly willing to buy Captain Manhattan's time- and space-traveling abilities, but I guess I draw the line at psychic powers, especially as the result of genetic engineering. Still, excellent work. Incidentally, it is charming to me that wikipedia's page on Watchmen is, in fact, longer than the page on War and Peace.

 

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. David Lodge's book Changing Places made famous the parlor game of "Humiliation," in which players name great works of literature they have never read. You win by admitting to never having the most widely regarded work.  For me, Frankenstein was probably, um, somewhere in the top 20 or so of my potential Humiliation admissions. But hey, Victor Frankenstein was a weak-willed jerk! Not that this was an unintended impression for the reader to have. But he seemed Hamlet-like in his willingness to let his indecision and self-absorbed agonizing lead to others' suffering (a young girl in particular -here, Justine instead of Ophelia). Anyway, in the end, probably more remarkable as a novel of ideas than as a novel of characters or action. Still, worth the time.