Random books from jwhenderson's library

Pain : the science of suffering by Patrick D. Wall

The birthday boys by Beryl Bainbridge

Collected poems, 1928-1953 by Stephen Spender

The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash

The ethics of rhetoric by Richard M. Weaver

Voltaire! Voltaire! A novel by S. Guy Endore

The Miracle Game by Josef Skvorecky

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Friends: anaall, EdwardEinhorn, NADiaman, paddlebook, rebcamuse, walshga

Interesting libraries: almigwin, donandpatti, ellenandjim, Existanai, Gypsy_Boy, henkl, Jamie638, jodavid, markell, MikeFarquhar, oakesspalding, pomonomo2003, praymont, rjacobs17, Stig_Brantley, ThomasJefferson, tomcatMurr, tsinandali, walshga, wirkman

LibraryThing authors: Jonathon Green (abecedary), Patricia Jean Wagner (patwagner)

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jwhenderson's reviews

Reviews of jwhenderson's books, not including jwhenderson's

Member: jwhenderson

Library4,247 books — see library

Reviews181 reviews — see reviews

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Tagsnovel (989), philosophy (519), music (234), poetry (231), literary criticism (203), folio society (172), literary biography (131), history of ideas (123), economics (119), essays (118) — see all tags

GroupsA Pearl of Wisdom and Enlightenment, BBC Radio 3 Listeners, Books Compared, Books in Books, Chicagoans, Classical Music, Early Reviewers, Fans of Russian authors, Folio Society devotees, It's a LondonThing — show all groups

Favorite authorsAeschylus, Hannah Arendt, Aristotle, Richard Willard Armour, W. H. Auden, John Banville, Julian Barnes, Jacques Barzun, Frederic Bastiat, John Bayley, Samuel Beckett, Alan Bennett, Isaiah Berlin, Jorge Luis Borges, Elizabeth Bowen, Paul Bowles, Alfred Brendel, Albert Camus, Elias Canetti, Thomas Carlyle, Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, E. M. Cioran, J. M. Coetzee, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Joseph Conrad, Hart Crane, Guy Davenport, Michael Dirda, Alexandre Dumas, D. J. Enright, Antony Flew, E.M. Forster, Milton Friedman, Roger Martin du Gard, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Peter Gay, Andre Gide, Lars Gustafsson, Knut Hamsun, F. A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Hermann Hesse, Gilbert Highet, Christopher Hitchens, Eric Hoffer, Sidney Hook, Victor Hugo, David Hume, Christopher Isherwood, Ismail Kadare, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Rudyard Kipling, Wolfgang Koeppen, Arthur Koestler, Milan Kundera, Par Lagerkvist, John Locke, John Lukacs, Maurice Maeterlinck, Naguib Mahfouz, Alberto Manguel, Thomas Mann, Francois Mauriac, Czeslaw Milosz, Ludwig von Mises, Nicholas Mosley, Robert Musil, V.S. Naipaul, Robert Nozick, George Orwell, Orhan Pamuk, Walker Percy, David Plante, Karl Raimund Popper, John Cowper Powys, James Purdy, Raymond Queneau, Thomas Reid, Mary Renault, Gregor von Rezzori, Romain Rolland, Charles Rosen, Murray N. Rothbard, Joseph Roth, George Santayana, Simon Schama, Arthur Schopenhauer, Thomas Sowell, George Steiner, Robert Louis Stevenson, David Storey, Alexander Theroux, Lewis Thomas, Colm Toibin, Georg Trakl, B. Traven, A. E. Van Vogt, Jules Verne, Edith Wharton, Edmund White, Oscar Wilde, James Wood, Marguerite Yourcenar (Shared favorites)

About me My reading and writing interests focus mainly on the humanities. Through literature classes and discussion groups I am continuing my education. Long ago I received a BA in economics and an MS in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin. More recently I have been spurred by courses in the Basic Program of Liberal Education at the University of Chicago and also at the Newberry Library. I also enjoy reading literary criticism and commmonplace books (James, Enright, Auden and Connoly). "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates

About my library My library encompasses a variety of interests with a primary emphasis on fiction, philosophical, poetic, musical and historical works. Some works are saved from my youth while I have collected some Folio Society, biography and literature in translation over the years. "There is no frigate like a book" - Dickinson

Homepagehttp://frugalchariot.blogspot.com/

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Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Real nameJames Henderson

LocationChicago, Illinois

Emailjwhend1021yahoo.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/jwhenderson (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jwhenderson (library)

Member sinceSep 29, 2006

Comments from other LibraryThing-ers

(Leave a comment.)

yes, thank God for the internet!
No, to the Thousand Cranes. The Kawabata, yes, I would recommend it if you're interested in Japan. it's a haunting book, exquisitely written, and a couple of hours read as it's so short.

On a completely different topic, another book I would wholeheartedly recommend to you as an Auden man, is Thekla Clark's memoire of Auden and Chester, which I am reading now. it's the best book on Auden I've read, and also fills out the portrait of Chester, who I always felt has been overshadowed in the Auden biographical canon. Thekla Clark writes very well, and movingly conveys what it must have been like to spend time with the 'odd couple'.

Best wishes
Murr

posted by tomcatMurr at 6:54 am (EST) on Mar 24, 2008

Thanks for letting me know, Jim. I enjoyed all the reviews very much, and have added both books to my TBR list. I hope I get can get them here in Taiwan. Our biggest English language book store here has just reduced its floor space by more than 2 thirds. Needless to say, most of their stock now consists of junk by James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer and their ilk.
Reading your blog, I am often struck by what a marvellously rich cultural life you enjoy. Must say, I am quite envious!
What Dickens are you reading?
I'm currently reading Kawabata's Beauty and Sadness, which is both beautiful and sad.
Best wishes,
Murr

posted by tomcatMurr at 11:59 pm (EST) on Mar 22, 2008

I noticed that you were a fan of Ryszard Kapuscinski, so I thought I'd let you know that a small Canadian press, Biblioasis, has just brought out a volume of his selected poetry. It's the only edition of Kapuscinski's poetry available in english. It's called I Wrote Stone, and was translated from the Polish by Diana Kuprel and Marek Kusiba.

His verse is interesting, and as one would expect, thoughtful, philosophical, aphoristic and engaged politically, morally and viscerally with the world around him. It's something all fans of Kapuscinski should read, a book that meant a lot to him, and that he worked very hard to see published before his death. It's a shame, alas, that he did not quite make it.

Anyway, it's available from Biblioasis. Online (www.biblioasis.com, www.amazon.com) and anywhere else you can find good books. Check it out.

(Sorry: I am an interested party: the publisher. But we're a small, literary press, and we're just doing our best to let anyone who might be interested know about this collection. Pardon my intrusion.)

Dan Wells

posted by biblioasis at 4:18 pm (EST) on Feb 29, 2008

Hi James

I just read your review of "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned", by Walter Mosley. It is a great review. I am not adept at literary criticism, but your comments precisely reflected my view of the book. I mentioned my interest in the mystery genre to a colleague in the English department and he recommended Mosley. "The King's English" suggested this book.

David

posted by HorusE at 9:33 am (EST) on Feb 25, 2008

I look forward to reading your review, then.
I started CT about 15 years ago and gave up, but I'm willing to give it another try....
I'm just about to finish Europe Central by Vollman, which offers a penetraitng and extremely moving analysis of Shostakovich's life and music (among other things.) highly recommended.
Best wishes

posted by tomcatMurr at 10:30 am (EST) on Feb 15, 2008

hi Jim,
Thanks for your comment on the lectern today. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks we are living in the Age of Twilight.
I keep meaning to ask you about your reading of Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy. How's it going?

posted by tomcatMurr at 10:08 am (EST) on Feb 7, 2008

You have an impressive library, and some interesting reviews. I envy you for living in Chicago -- I still have to make my pilgrimage to the Seminary Co-op bookstore.

posted by praymont at 6:23 pm (EST) on Jan 20, 2008

Hi!

I noticed that we share several favorite authors. We live in Denver, but I am a native Chicagoan - grew up in Hyde Park and South Shore - and usually visit for conferences once a year. My husband Leif has been a scholar of the Austrian School for decades - we are "small l" libertarians. Like your description and look forward to browsing your library. We have about 3,000 books to go (grin) a few at a time.

Pat Wagner

patwagner
patternresearch
straycat
ExplorersFoundation - my husband is building a collection online related to his foundation - http://explorersfoundation.org/

posted by patwagner at 11:29 am (EST) on Jan 20, 2008

Hello Henderson, this is the veritable Floyd Dangle. I see we share 70 titles and I'm still logging with hundreds more to go.
I see you are a Chicagoan- I envy you. Chicago is the greatest and most truly American city in the USA. My wife and I eloped there in 2005 staying at the Palmer House and seeing all we could for a week. Perchance have you read or own any books by Joseph Epstein, an essayist and U. of Chicago alumnus. If not check out his latest collection, In a Cardboard Belt.
How's the weather in Chitown- a miserable room temperature here in SoCal. Floyd Dangle

posted by floyd_dangle at 5:33 pm (EST) on Jan 14, 2008

yes absolutely. Perhaps I was too young when I read it. Have you read The Yacoubian Building? I notice you have it in your library. Looks like it might go well with the Cairo trilogy.
Happy reading!
Murr

posted by tomcatMurr at 11:34 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2007

HI Jim,
Thanks for your comments on my Dylan Thomas piece, and for posting the link to The Lectern on your blog. (I need to find out how to do that: I dont seem to be as computer literate as you are; but when I get the hang of it I will link to your blog as well, if I may.)
I'm having a bit of a Keats phase at the moment, and of course Dylan Thomas. Other than that, I'm also catching up on my Chinese history, which is woefully sketchy considering that I live in the Chinese world.

I need to win the lottery so that I can give up work and just read!
Best wishes,
Murr

posted by tomcatMurr at 5:31 am (EST) on Dec 5, 2007

Thanks for the encouragement... I appreciate knowing that someone who loves opera didn't care for Bel Canto as well. Makes me feel like less of an uncultured slob.

posted by nancyewhite at 7:39 pm (EST) on Oct 9, 2007

Jim:
For another interesting incorporation of Herodotus, have you ever read The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje? It is a novel (that was made into a fairly popular movie in the 90's) about a pilot hospitalized in Italy downed in Africa during WWII who carried and read Herodotus with him, and refers to a few of the accounts in The Hisrories. Not everyone likes Ondaatje-his language and style is very poetic and beautiful but many people thing its a little over the top.
DEGEE

posted by degee at 8:39 am (EST) on Oct 4, 2007

Here is one I just completed in August: Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish journalist who died recently. It is a memoir that combines his lifelong reading of The Histories with his experiences in the same areas (and a few additional areas)
David Gee.

posted by degee at 2:17 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2007

Hi Jim,

Thank you for the Victor Hugo recommendation. I've only read a couple of his books and found them enjoyable. Ninety-Three is definitely going on my to-be-read list. I love your library! Your wide selection of poetry, literature, literary criticism, philosophy... is just heavenly to browse through! Most of my Lit. and philosophy books are in storage, because my place can't handle any more shelves. Your reviews are great as well.
It's a challenge to recommend favorite books/authors you haven't already read, but I'll give it some thought :) I'm partial to Fyodor Dostoyevsky (especially The Brothers Karamazov) and Charles Dickens (especially David Copperfield).

Happy Reading!

Tina

posted by TinazReading at 11:42 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2007

Just entered a book with a Kroch's & Brentano's sale tag. Thought about you. Wasn't that a terrific bookstore? I Spent hours in the basement of that place. BTW, I used to live near the Lakeview area. For a couple of years I lived on Deming Place, right off of Clark Street. Really fun area.
Best,
Jim

posted by walshga at 5:46 pm (EST) on Aug 20, 2007

Hi James!
How's life in Chicago? I lived in the Streeterville area for five years back in the '90s - what a great town!
My word, you have a remarkable collection. I see you like Nabokov, Auchincloss and Waugh. Three of my favorites. Yeah, people just don't understand why I buy books that I don't read. I guess it's that pragmatic strain in American thought. I just like having books around - even just to flip through from time to time.
Keep smiling!
Jim

posted by walshga at 9:15 am (EST) on Aug 14, 2007

Well, I was teasing slightly: I just happened to notice your 5-star rating of a book that I had just given a slightly cool review ('Planets for Sale'). I think 'Voyage of Space Beagle' was my favourite, or at least was the most memorable, but as I haven't catalogued it yet, it hasn't got a rating from me.

posted by MyopicBookworm at 9:32 am (EST) on Jul 19, 2007

I am slightly surprised that A. E. van Vogt is not listed among your "favourite" authors, since you appear to have given 5 stars to everything of his in your collection! (Or would he look too out of place among all those heavyweights of European literature?)

posted by MyopicBookworm at 1:03 pm (EST) on Jul 18, 2007

I have been reading a few of your reviews, and found them really interesting and helpful. I now know for sure that I must read The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

posted by henkl at 4:08 am (EST) on Jul 14, 2007

Hi; yes, the only tagging I've done well on is the philosophy; - and that is really because it is my overriding interest. Politics and Religion interest me but only insofar as they interesect with philosophy. Over the last decade, decade and a half, philosophy has been my primary obsession... There are a great deal of interesting libraries here on LT, I love utilizing them for my own researches.

Joe

posted by pomonomo2003 at 5:42 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2007

Jim,
Thanks for the note and thoughts. We had different reactions to the Murakami (which, I'll concede is the only book of his that I've read so far). I liked it. I enjoyed his writing, though I'll concede that the book is...different. I want to read another book or two of his before I decide what I think. I'm not expecting a lot, but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.
Of the "favorite authors" you mentioned, I remember very much enjoying Utz and All Passion Spent. I have tried unsuccessfully to read Mann--something that I suspect may be as much a translator issue as an author issue. (Though, in fairness, after reading some 250 pages of Magic Mountain, I simply didn't care enough about the protagonist to continue.) Hamsun is on the list as is Saramago, though from what limited browsing I've done, I'm not entirely optimistic about either.
You're likely to get to the Marai before I do--let me know what you think.

Dave

posted by Gypsy_Boy at 7:52 pm (EST) on Apr 4, 2007

Jim,
Thanks for your kind note. We do, indeed, share an interest in European fiction--one that appears to extend quite a bit. Interestingly, I also just got the latest Marai and have put it on the nightstand--behind the first 397! Sadly, I have never been able to read Dostoyevsky. I have had better luck with some translators than others and with more out of the way pieces than "mainstream" works, but I guess he's just too...interior...for me. I wish it were otherwise, especially since I have great interest in Russian fiction generally (something apparently true of you as well). He's just a little too obtuse for me. You also have quite a bit by Lagerkvist--we must be two of a relatively few addicts. One area, among others, that you might be interested in exploring is Japanese fiction. You have some, but others you might particular enjoy are Shusaku Endo (esp. Silence and The Sea and Poison), Yasunari Kawabata (Snow Country, Sound of the Mountain, etc.), and Natsume Soseki (esp. Kokoro). Also, given your interest in Eastern European as well, some Polish authors like Herling (The Island) and Huelle (Who Was David Weiser?), among others.

Your recommendations?

Dave

posted by Gypsy_Boy at 7:46 am (EST) on Apr 3, 2007

Hello,
I just saw your blog for the first time, and at first glance I thought it was mine! We're using the same template and are writing about many of the same things. I love some of the things you are saying up there.

I'm also a huge fan of Auden. Actually, I think more than any other writer he has had the most impact on my life. What are you reading by him at the moment?

"All we are not stares back at what we are."
Best wishes, Murr

posted by tomcatMurr at 1:13 am (EST) on Mar 15, 2007

yes, tamas is one of my favourite books...very few authors have been able to delineate the nuances of the relationships b/w different set of people in colonial India...bhisham sahni is one of the few who have been successful....

posted by protikche at 1:17 am (EST) on Mar 11, 2007

hi

i saw that i have the book, "Tamas" in common with you (you and no other, librarything informs me)...i was wondering if you could tell me, how you liked it, esp since the beauty of most works is lost in translation...

and btw, you have a lovely library..the range of titles gets a little overwhelming on first sight but then, hopefully would be able to build up my 'armory' over the years :)

posted by protikche at 3:46 am (EST) on Mar 8, 2007

We have 192 books in common so far, but I only started cataloguing yesterday. It's interesting that your interests have been spurred by the University of Chicago basic program in liberal education because I got my undergraduate degree there in the 40's when the great books reigned supreme. (Everything was viewed through an aristotelian lens and discussed socratically). Your current reading is leaning a bit to the depressing. I'd recommend adding some woody allen. Did you like the haruki murakami? I think he is awfully original, creative and interesting.

posted by almigwin at 10:51 pm (EST) on Mar 5, 2007

Ah, Yourcenar . . . I guess I'm going to have to read this soon! (I picked it up a few months ago after a friend recommended it. But it is just sitting on my shelf, right now!) Thanks for the note. Yes, individual liberty is a major interest of mine. I even work in the "libertarian" industry, so to speak!

posted by wirkman at 7:44 pm (EST) on Feb 28, 2007

Ah, I loved that Pound poem. Also, I am an astounded fan of "with usura" . . . though most of his other poems don't impress me that much.

I have a long way to go to catch up to the size of your library catalog, but I think I might just do it. I have many, many shelves to go. Today I finished up about half the books in my bedroom; another half to go some other day. And then there's the bulk of stuff in my office.

We share quite a few books, too, including some economics texts that most readers would run from.

posted by wirkman at 5:20 am (EST) on Feb 28, 2007

I would love to read your thoughts on 'The Collected Short Stories of Joseph Roth'. My all-time favourite novel is his 'Job: The Story of a Simple Man'. The only two novels I call perfect are 'Job', and 'Pride and Prejudice'.

posted by mysticskeptic at 4:19 am (EST) on Feb 2, 2007

thanks for the comment. yes, i love literature in translation, especially from eastern europe. so, you have dombrovsky in your library. i have been considering reading 'the faculty of useless knowledge'. have you read it? what did you think of it?

posted by jodavid at 8:02 pm (EST) on Oct 9, 2006

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