Orhan Pamuk wins Noble Prize for Literature.

I read Snow last year on Estelle's recommendation. Little did Estelle know that the setting of the story would suck me in. The novel takes place in Kars, which is this town in the cold, snowy part of Northern Turkey that also happens to be the hometown of one leg of my family (my paternal grandfather's parents, to be specific). I had only heard Kars mentioned once before, in Elia Kazan's film America, America, as it was the homeland of the Armenian character, who coincidentally had the same last name as my great-grandmother. Pamuk's description of this place to which I have some vague connection, but have never seen, blew my mind. Then his story did the same.

Go read Snow. Just do it.