Finished Zorba the Greek today. It's the story of an intellectual (the narrator) and a worldly adventurer (Zorba) who go to Crete to operate a lignite mine. Much of the text is philosophical meditation about the nature of man, God, death, &c. I think like a lot of Herman Hesse's work, or the movie Waking Life, this book may strike people really hard if they are exposed to it in their late teens or early 20s, but much later than that, and a lot of the ideas in it seem old hat. Much of the writing is beautiful, but after a while it starts (to me) to feel a little "overwritten". Just: too much lush imagery-- I kinda felt burned out on it after a while. Also, there's a shocking amount of misogyny, as well as some homophobia. I guess Zorba is supposed to be a powerful, compelling character, but I did not find myself moved by his story. Not a book I'll be holding on to or revisiting any time soon, though I am curious to see the movie.

ETA: On further reflection, I'm not really being fair to the book-- there were no small number of moments I found striking or profound-- it's just that overall, it didn't really seem to add up to much, and left me feeling underwhelmed. Much of the book seemed breathlessly taken with it's own depth, and I just didn't see it, most of the time. I 100% acknowledge, though, that maybe part of the problem is that I'm not steeped enough in Greek culture to really "get it".

Bought book 4-6 of the Thomas Covenant series, so Book 4 is now on the list:

August 1914
The Autumn of the Patriarch
The Blind Assassin
The Complete Plays (Synge)
Dr. Mutter's Marvels
A Frolic of His Own
Four Plays (Ionesco)
Ink
Invisible Cities
Largo Desolato
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
The Myth of Mental Illness
Naked Masks
Notes from Underground
Out of Our Heads
The Path to the Spiders' Nest
Rabbit Redux
Secrets, Lies and Democracy
Something Understood
Timbuktu
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Wounded Land
Yon Ill Wind

By process of random selection from the list, my next book is The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle's 1883 collection of the traditional stories. I am a little worried about being able to relate to something that old-- but I will give it an honest try!