Starting Again

My self-imposed blogging vacation was only about a week old before I started thinking of starting up again. But I told myself I needed to enforce that blogging break, and therefore wouldn’t “allow” myself to blog again until September.  I instead spent time redesigning the site and pondering just what I want to be doing on this reading blog.

I’ve decided I’m going to start over again. My involvement will probably be far less than it was before and I reserve the right to just stop blogging or omit blogging for a week or two here or there if I’m too tired of it, if life is busy, or if I otherwise just feel like it. This is once again for me, and not for others, although I’ll try to be a part of something. Continue reading »

A Goodbye-for-now Haiku

It’s Haiku month with the In the Spring Is the Dawn Hello Japan mini-challenge! I am still waiting for my book of haiku to read (it’s on its way!) but I thought I’d write my own haiku to join in.

Happy memories,
pleasant friends, and blogs: good-bye
until I write next.

I’ve decided to stop blogging for a while. Continue reading »

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

From my limited perspective (that is, having read Undaunted Courage), the life of Meriwether Lewis was tragedy. He was a very good leader in the midst of an unknown wilderness, yet the results of his expedition were little because of his subsequent drunkenness and ineptitude at producing his results, governing, and otherwise assimilating back in to society. It took 100 years for his journals to be published in full, and much of what he had discovered in science and geography had by then been rediscovered by someone else.

In terms of reading about Meriwether Lewis’ life and expedition to the Pacific, I found Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West to be disappointing as well. The book was dull in writing style, in research, and in cliché phrases. Just as with last month’s book club pick, I probably would not have read it if not for the upcoming get together. In fact, I would have abandoned this book completely if the group leader had not asked me to lead the discussion (she is out of town). Continue reading »

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome (narrated by Martin Jarvis)

Karen from Books and Chocolate suggested the audio for Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, saying it was “the funniest books I have ever read,” and she’s read it a number of times. I certainly have to agree that it is a ridiculous satiric Victorian novel and completely unlike the stereotypes of Victorian literature that some foster.

Continue reading »

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

As much as I love to read, I am not a book buyer, and I especially I don’t have any special feelings for independent book stores, which I equate with less selection and higher prices. I buy used books online via various marketplaces because, even with shipping, it’s normally cheaper than buying a new or a used book in a bookstore, and the selection is seemingly infinite. Or, far more often, I borrow books from the library. Other than the property taxes I pay, my local library is free, even for Interlibrary Loan requests from neighboring university libraries. FREE. I can read essentially anything in print (and much out of print) through a library request or via a public domain online text.

So, I suppose it is not surprising that Lewis Buzbee’s memoir of bookstores, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, did not do much for me. It is a combination of a history of bookselling and a memoir of his own addiction to bookstores, and I spent the bulk of the book wishing it was about a love of books or a love of the written word or a love of a specific author. I was the wrong audience, and I had been hoping for a different book. I also speed read it in order to have a post ready for the Spotlight Series today. If I hadn’t made that commitment, I’d probably not have finished it at all or I’d have read it slower. Maybe if I had not read it all at once, I would not have been as irritated by parts of it. I’m not a memoir person, and this volume reinforced that. Continue reading »

A Taste of Imperial Russian Literature

As I helped compile the listing of Imperial Russian Literature for the Classics Circuit a few months ago (found here), I found my TBR list growing exponentially: there are so many authors I want to read that I just don’t know when I’ll get to them all. Through my searches at the library and at Amazon.com, I discovered a volume by Penguin Viking: The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader. It was just what I was looking for: stories, novellas, and poems from twenty different Imperial Russian writers.

I intended to read the entire volume for the Circuit (about 600 pages), but I’m finding that summer living has made reading time scarce. Even reading half the volume, though, makes for quite a long post here, so I hope you don’t mind. I read the authors I had never read before and share my thoughts below: Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Sergey Akaskov, Karolina Pavlova, and Ivan Goncharov. Some of them are writers that I intend to revisit. Other writers were a good read, but I’ll probably not revisit them.

According to Merriam Webster, superfluous means “exceeding what is sufficient or necessary: extra; not needed: unnecessary.” As I read the collection of stories, poems, and novellas, I couldn’t help thinking of that word. Ivan Turgenev wrote the novella “The Diary of a Superfluous Man” in 1850, which focused on one of the gentry who lived a rather aimless life. I haven’t read the novella (it is not in my Reader), but I read Mel u’s post about it early in the Classics Circuit Tour. As I read my selections, I kept thinking about how each story or poem seemed to discuss one of these “unnecessary” people in Russian society. Reading Russian literature in that light is quite depressing, yet the stories are, for the most part, wonderfully drawn together. Continue reading »

The Victorian Art of Fiction: Nineteenth-Century Essays on the Novel, edited by Rohan Maitzen

I loved to read The Victorian Art of Fiction: Nineteenth-Century Essays on the Novel because what could be better than essays by Victorians about Victorian novels?!¹ I really enjoyed the essays I read, but I should begin this post by clarifying that unfortunately, my Interlibrary Loan expired before I finished the book. I only got through about 8 of the 22 essays in Rohan Maitzen’s collection. I barely touched the surface and didn’t have time to read deeply.

Nevertheless, in a few years, when I’ve (hopefully) read a greater amount of Victorian literature, I’ll have to revisit the collection. I think having actually read the major novels they are talking about would make it even more enjoyable! Continue reading »

Love in a Fallen City and Other Stories by Eileen Chang

Claire at Kiss a Cloud recently called Eileen Chang’s stories “anti-love” stories, and I think that is an apt description. Eileen Chang, who wrote in the 1940s, captured relationships in her stories, and her perspective is unfailing bitter. These stories do not, for the most part, have happy endings, even when the man and the woman do get together. I loved the insights into Chinese culture, but that said, my favorite story of the collection (“Sealed Off”) was one that was more universal in setting, emotion, and culture. In fact, I loved it and wish to add it to the “great short stories” hall of fame.

I read the copy of Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang, published by NYRB; there are a total of four novellas¹ and two stories. Continue reading »

Abandoned Book (for Now): Dante’s Inferno + My Books to Read Before 40 List

I wanted to join Richard’s Dante readalong this summer, I really did. I decided that, since I loved reading Homer’s The Iliad and was planning on reading Virgil soon, I could read Dante this summer without too much trouble. Why not? I love classic epics.

I read up on the whys behind each translation, I got four different translations from the library, and I compared them. I decided on the Hollander translation, and I began reading. To my surprise, I understood every single word. It was beautiful! To my further surprise, I was bored to death.  I had no idea what was going on. Let me rephrase that: due to the extensive notes, I know what is going on. I just cannot care less for it. I see no point.

I have read more than half of Inferno, and I’ve decided I am done for now. I suspect that this is one of those cases in which I’m reading at the wrong time in my life. I’ll try again in a few years. Continue reading »

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (abridged audio, read by the author)

There is no doubt about it: Barack Obama is an incredibly likeable man. His down-to-earth attitude, his (apparent) honesty, and his hope for the potential in all of us make me proud that he’s the face of America today. I loved to listen to The Audacity of Hope, which he wrote five years ago as junior Illinois Senator. I was delighted every time I remembered that he’s now the President, and able to see some of his hopes come to light.

I only wished, as I listened, that there was more of it. Only when I was nearly finished listening did I realize it was an abridgement of a longer book. (I hate it when that happens.) Still, there was something doubly wonderful about listening to President Obama narrating himself his hopes for the future of America. I’m not sure I would have loved it as much if I’d read it. Continue reading »