Still slogging through "Nicholas Nickleby": 730 pages down, only about 100 to go! Not as compelling as other Dickens novels, as the characters are just too clearly good or evil. And Dickens is not one to underwrite--ever. But, oh, the dialog! Therein lies his genius, IMHO...
I just finished the new Joyce Carol Oates novel, I"LL TAKE YOU THERE. Not one of her best due to a technical experiment in storytelling that doesn't quite succeed, but vividly written nonetheless. Now I've begun Stendhal's unfinished autobiography THE LIFE OF HENRI BRULARD, which is wonderful. Stendhal is one of my favorites and I've been saving this book for a dry spell when I had nothing else pressing to read. The book begins with Stendhal standing on the Janiculum Hill in Rome contemplating the city and his life, wondering what kind of man he really is and resolving to write it all down in the hopes of finding out.
Just wanted to paste in this link about another book lover and what he's been up to lately for your interest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/20/books/20STON.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
Thanks, Tartarin - fascinating article.
Stephen Jay Gould's "Eight Little Piggies".
Paying the Piper - David Drake
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Emperor of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith
Mattanza
love and death in the sea of sicily
by Theresa Maggio
read something else by her I liked, don't remember the title but would recognize it. Good writer.
I looking through the Leopard again today, after I found it at a local used book store, since I can't find it in my boxes of books...
zeroing in on possible quotes for my signature...but no, all I find are a bit too long. It's at work, I will read over lunch, will nail a two liner.
RecentlY read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Swanned my way through it in lethargic page turning, rewarded by jewel like description from time to time.
Next, some damn thing by Linda Fairstein, prosecutor for new york, terrible terrible writing, whatever her personal virtues. I remember now I threw the last one out. Why did I buy another one? The plot on the book back. Bletch, out. I say that, but will I finish it anyway?
Signed,
woman of strong opinions
Elmore Leonard has done short stories??????
No books today. Just the newspapers.
Just finished Mollie Peer. I soooooo didn't want that book to end. Now I'm trying to find Daniel Plainway - it was out of stock and on back order and gone gone gone at all the bookstores i went to yesterday. Finding Peter Loon is going to be even harder i think.
http://www.moosepath.com/index.html
Cordelia Underwood was supposed to go out on a bookcrossings adventure, but she's still making the rounds of the office. We're all becoming addicted.
A treasure has just arrived via postman, sent me by an uniquely-constituted east coast wanton (quickly identifiable by her fondness for weapons and wolves) who clearly possesses subtle taste in both literature and friends.
The title is 'The War Against Cliche', essays and reviews, 1971 - 2000 by Martin Amis. Let me give you a taste from a London Review of Books piece on Robert Bly's 'Iron John' dated 1991:
"Naturally, it's much too easy to laugh at Robert Bly's vision. But why is it so easy? Partly because he is one of those writers, like F.R. Leavis and Hermann Hesse, whose impregnable humorlessness will always prompt a (humorous) counter-commentary in the reader's mind. Then, too, we are British, over here; we are sceptical, ironical, etc., and are not given, as Americans are, to seeking expert advice on basic matters, especially such matters as our manhood. But the main reason has to do with embarrassment. Being more or less unembarrassable, Americans are fatally attracted to the embarrassing: they have an anti-talent for it (the Oscars, the primaries, the hearings, Sharpton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Swaggart). Whereas, over here, malesness itself has become an embarrassment. Male consciousness, male pride, male rage - we don't want to hear about it."
blatham, thanks for that quote. I recently found his Moronic Inferno, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. That might be my favorite book title, given the subject matter.
LarryBS
It is a great title, agreed. I've read only bits of Amis previously where I've bumped into them here or there. There is a two or three page piece on Thatcher in this one which is easily worth the price of admission just by itself.
I'm presently working up a piece on Bush titled "His Mother Should Have Eaten Him While His Bones Were Still Soft". How does that work for you?
I don't know about Larry, but that works for me all right.
Ah, a kindred spirit! Make sure you don't miss
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/
Martin Amis is always worth a read. His "Experiences" is excellent, too. A sort of memoir. I must find "The War Against Cliche". Thanks for reminding me!
If (and this is a big if) I went back to reading fiction, I think I would have another go a reading Steinbeck. My parents had a huge repository of him and I worked my way through it as a teen. I feel that I may find more there now.
"Night Sky" by Clare Francis
