amaranthic is reading.

I already have a topic in here somewhere but I'm starting anew - it was just bothering me, I don't know why. I am a little touchy like that.

Here is my last year's topic:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/38316

I'm currently reading Anne Fadiman's Ex-Libris, which is a collection of little essays, something I am very fond of. There's a section near the beginning (where I am) where she describes a book about cats:

"There aren't enough new words. Or so I thought until last summer, when I happened to read a book called The Tiger in the House, written in 1920 by Carl Van Vechten, a novelist and jazz critic whose prose style, if not actually purple, can certainly be described as mauve. Its subject was cats--cats in literature, history, music, art, and so on. I was writing an article about cats myself, and I'd read several recent compendia of cat lore that covered much the same territory. The authors of these books made only one assumption about their readers: that they were interested in cats. Van Vechten, by contrast, assumed that his readers were on intimate terms with classical mythology and the Bible; that they could read music (he included part of the score from Domenico Scarlatti's "Cat's Fugue"); and that they were familiar with hundreds of writers, artists, and composers to whom he referred by last name only, as if Sacchini and Teniers needed as little introduction as Bach and Rembrandt."

I haven't read the book in question, nor do I especially like felines, but I just thought that was interesting. I kind of want to seek it out now! Anyway, that got me to start listing cat-related books I knew of - Doris Lessing's On Cats, TS Eliot with the ubiquitous Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats...

One of these days, I'll get my 48 inches of cat books entered here on LT. Your message made me wish I had it on now so I could easily call out books to add to your list. Paul Gallico has several cat books that are classics. What is the name of the one where a boy is turned into a cat? I read that one over and over as a child, crying every time.

And there's de Lint's A Circle of Cats, a totally charming fable about a little girl and cats.

And there's also the fantasy book by Tad Williams, Tailchaser's Song.

I seem to recall a talking cat in The Master and Margarita too (full confession: I forgot to finish this book and will probably be trying again this year), but that's all I got! Thank you all.

1. I Was Told There'd Be Cake, Sloane Crosley

A small collection of short humorous essays (sometimes I think all I read are short essays). Unfortunately, Crosley is a little inconsistent. Some were really great - I did like the opening essay about the ponies and the one about failed volunteering; really identified - others, particularly near the end of the book, fell short for me. It's obvious from how erratic her output was for me that this is a fledgling attempt. I don't know that I would recommend this book outright, but perhaps I would share it in parts.



2. North, Seamus Heaney

I really like Seamus Heaney and am sort of embarrassed to include him in the same post as another book. He's just so condensed and rich. The bog people cycle and "Singing School" were my faves. One poem was not.

3. 巴金小说 - 巴金 (a compilation of selected short stories and one novella by Ba Jin)

Ba Jin writes succinctly and deliberately. His writing style in the short stories here (though not in novels of his that I have tried, necessarily) is easy to grasp and relatively simple. I had a friend who has only taken three years of Chinese who was reading over my shoulder - he struggled with some names and a few adjectives but, in comparison with the density of texts by Bing Xin, for example, was pretty much able to follow along! Unfortunately, when Ba Jin does use description, he is not always successful; often his descriptions seem otiose and even perfunctorily inserted. One story in particular did not share this trait: his "Gui" ("Ghost," I suppose) was my absolute favorite, and I intend to translate it in the future. Another one whose title I can't remember - something like "Chickens and Pigs" - was surprisingly funny and concise. An attempt at reviewing the included novella, "Qi Yuan," in Chinese, probably also the longest review I will ever have time to write as well as the least coherent, will be in the next post.

edit: Not showing up in entirety. Will try to fix later.

3a. "Qi Yuan" (a novella), Ba Jin

Apologies in advance for my lackluster Chinese. Unfortunately my already dubious reading capacities far outweigh my writing abilities there...

http://amaranthic.tumblr.com/post/75607158/on-qi-yuan-ba-jin

edit: So apparently that was something of an understatement. Mi madre read this attempt at writing in Chinese and just about busted a gut laughing. Not only are there multiple grammatical mistakes but I also call Ba Jin "he li" when I mean something like, I don't know, "you jia zhi"... c'est la vie. I'm keeping this link up here to prove that I actually tried! (And I swear my speaking abilities are much better than my writing skills!)

Hi amaranthic! How nice to see another familiar name.

I'm not a cat person, but I always loved Barbara Sleigh's Carbonel books. Plus of course the Kipling classic 'The Cat that Walked By Himself'. And The Unadulterated Cat has been read recently in this group too... what fun.

I'd got the Crosley on my list but I think you're the second person I've seen describe it as "uneven". Great title though. And so glad to see you reading North - I studied this for A-level English and somehow managed to continue to love it despite having completely taken it to pieces to understand it all. I keep meaning to pick up that book of his conversations with Dennis (? oh the name has gone, bother) that has come out this year.

Ironically, I just read North for a class too. But I'm very fond of Seamus Heaney, so it was all right. I also tend to compulsively try to take things to pieces in order to enjoy them, so that helped. I'm now reading District and Circle and liking it just as much!

I just think Heaney is so smart. I haven't read that book you're referring to - the name is escaping my mind too, but I know what you're talking about, I think - but I was watching some interviews the other day and I was really enthralled.

I'm now interested in reading other Irish poets too. I've read a little Kavanagh but not much else...

Thanks for this thread. I've decided to read some of Gallico's books, starting with Thomasina. I was actually more intrigued by The Abandoned and/or Jennie, but they are expensive, aren't they? Thomasina was a little less so. Thanks for getting me thinking about these, all of you.

Thanks, furdog, for indirectly answering my question in message 3. The Abandoned is indeed the book that I loved and cried over. I must have always gotten it from the library. I have three Gallico's, including The Silent Miaow, Honorable Cat, and Thomasina, but not that one, alas.

The cover to Jennie looks amazingly familiar to me - I feel like I have read it before, because I usually recall covers foremost, but I can't remember it at all.. I guess I'll have to check it out again!

I'm happy your question was resolved!

4. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith

Simple and subtle. McCall Smith navigates the terrain of everyday Botswana and the conflict between old and new with care. The pace was a little too slow for me, and I wasn't in the mood for something with such a disconnected plot - we follow Mme Ramotswe through multiple episodes in her career as a detective, interspersed with meditative moments, and often these episodes don't relate - but as a piece of light reading, this book has some loveliness. I probably won't read the other books in the series soon, but I've heard that they're much better when read as a set; apparently the story is ongoing and perhaps less loosely collected than in this first book? Just speculation, but I hope it's true.

I'll leave you with a picture of McCall Smith and, totally on topic, his cat. Unfortunately I have no source other than the name of the photographer, Murdo Macleod.

great picture and great reviews!

Thank you for the compliment! I'm thinking of making my reviews a little longer. As I've been going around all the threads I read for recommendations and insight, I've noticed that a lot of people have pretty long reviews, often helped along by a paragraph or two of straight summary. My memory has been pretty bad lately for books and it seems like writing down a little more about what the book is about might help me with that.

5. ex-libris: confessions of a common reader, anne fadiman

well - not following through on my resolution. much too sick* for any sort of coherent review. liked these essays much more than the last one. favorites included the first ("marrying libraries"), and actually... i think that was my favorite. the one about antartica was great too, although to be honest that was probably mostly my fascination with the poles. apart from maybe two or three that i found so uninteresting that i couldn't bother with them, all the essays were gently humorous if perhaps slightly obscure at times for the non-well-read such as myself (nothing obstructive, but there were a few names i should have known and didn't). i did find myself questioning her depiction of coleridge as reading robinson crusoe during the christ's hospital era. it bothered me for days: had i ever come across such a depiction before? wasn't rc during his younger days? why don't people source these things? where are my damn notes??? - but a small and irrelevant quibble. no matter. this book was lovely.

*i cannot swallow properly!! i think i may have broken something!

edit: and i am probably wrong about the coleridge. i'm not very erudite after all. but it is still bothering me!

I'm sorry. I wasn't going to post until I was less sick/had finished another book, but okay, come on, guys, seriously:

"At six years of age I remember to have read Belisarius, Robinson Crusoe, and Phillip Quarles." Biographia Literaria.

Totally not the Christ's Hospital era.

Perhaps the idea was that he was rereading? I don't know, but it bothers me less now anyway...

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22607/22607-h/images/illus_76_th.jpg

From the Portrait by G. Dawe, R.A., 1812, via William Roberts' The Book-Hunter in London (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22607).

I hope you get to feeling better soon!

Thank you. I shall try. I have just been to the doctor's and was told that I have some sort of an esophageal inflammation, which sounds appropriate, and then I was given some little pills with a long name, so with any luck I should be feeling better soon!

in the meantime i have been reading. though still disinclined to write longer reviews. ah well. perhaps a project for the summer, when i am less out of sorts.



(I can't read this language; I just like the cover more.)

6. imagining argentina, lawrence thornton (finally reaching my january quota)

i actually really enjoyed this book. thornton has a way with words that is at times beautiful. imagining argentina deals with the disappearances of the late 70s. a work of magical realism, this novel follows carlos rueda's quest for his disappeared wife and his command of imagination, belief, and storytelling as sources of strength and power. i did wish thornton had provided us with deeper insight into argentinian culture and history though! i've heard that parts of this novel apart from the obvious are taken from real and specific incidents; it would be interesting (although hard to convey within the novel, so this isn't so much a complaint as a simple thought) to see what of the novel is "true" and what of the novel is "inaccurate."

edit: I've heard that Thornton has never been to Argentina, or at least that he had never been during the disappearances. Interesting to think about.



7. bird by bird, anne lamott

i read this because some of my friends loved it, and because i am currently writing some personal essays that i'm having an especially thorny time with. i was not as impressed, mostly for tetchy little paranoiac reasons. i found the writing a little bland and most of the advice old and predictable. perhaps i have read too many books, articles, posts on writing recently. however, there were some great little personal anecdotes in here that i enjoyed. and it was inspiring at times, in no small part because of lamott's tendency to relate the specific to the universal, the writerly to the lived. a more useful resource than many similar books i have read thus far - just not useful enough for me.

Hi amaranthic
I hope you feel better! I love your reviews. You are reading quite an interesting group of books in 2009!

Thank you! I'm hoping to read more world literature both originally in English and otherwise while still making a dent in my classics pile this next year. But I can never decide what books to start with! I'll probably just go through my unread books pile, but we'll see.

I'm currently rereading Ulysses, just an almost precursory read - I'm not looking at notes, I'm barely looking up references, I'm just trying to get through it and enjoy the plot and language. I can't honestly say that I understand all of it but those words sure are beautiful! I think Ulysses may be the only book I have read in the last year where I was so overcome by wonder that I was not at the same time constantly under some strange, compulsive pressure to check my watch. (I'm one of those terrible people constantly checking the time on their cell phones in movie theatres too.)

edit: Which I've just realized is American, although Joyce is Irish? But an expatriate.

There are many threads wherein I've posted about my love of the Pre-raphaelites and their art. J.W. Waterhouse is my favorite of the brotherhood. He has such incredible paintings of mythological figures. Hrere is one on Ulysses and the Sirens.

http://hybrids.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000004aa4b0f

That is lovely. It has always been through imagination one of my favorite episodes in the Odyssey too. I'll have to look up more Waterhouse!

amaranthic...

I warn you, once you study the paintings of Waterhouse, you, like me, may become obsessed.

Here is another link, this one is his rendition of Circe.

http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=62

I like that one too. Did he do lots of the Odyssey?



8. decline and fall, evelyn waugh

After the debacle of Brideshead Revisited last year, which I liked in parts, I decided to try again with another, more humorous Waugh. Decline and Fall is much lighter fare and follows one Paul Pennyfeather around in his misfortunes and adventures with a keen, satiric eye and at times vicious wit. But I have to say that I much prefer the first section of Decline and Fall to the latter! The section between the termination of Pennyfeather's stay at Llanabba and his entry into prison was especially week. It often seemed that things that felt they should have some explanation happened very quickly and without cause or development. It is almost as if Waugh had a list of things he wanted to skewer and now he is just going down the list with less regard for plot or continuity. The last three chapters too were similarly weak. The wheel segment in particular is drawn-out and felt injected. I did however like Pennyfeather at school, and the first chapter was marvelous; I only wish the rest of the book had continued in that strain.

edited for touchstones and some vague semblance of coherency (gave up on the latter)

>23 amaranthic:: YAY! I love Ulysses, and it seems to be so rare to find other people who do... even those who will say they've finished it usually admit they hate it. I think it's amaaaaazing. (Coincidentally - I'm sure - that Book Quiz link that Erin/wunderkind started off told me that I am Ulysses. Flattering? Probably not.)

amaranthic: Here's a great website that lets you browse through all (I think) of Waterhouse's works:

http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/

Careful, though - I've gotten sucked into browsing through the pictures for hours!

scaifea

Thanks VERY much for this site. I thought I found all of them re. Waterhouse, but alas it is wonderful to see yet another.

I love Ulysses! The first time I read it I was very drunk, which may have helped a bit at times but was not at all conducive to any sort of analytical thought or basic memory functions. So now I am reading it again. I'm not very far in, which is bad because I'm doing it with a reading partner who is more learned and a faster reader than I am, but I just love how everything sounds in the mouth! I'm starting to consider looking at a book of explanatory notes at the same time, though. The fun of googling every Latin phrase is starting to wear thin and I know that I'm missing such a large amount of subtext simply due to lack of experience and narrowness of reading. Or perhaps I should just learn Latin.

Waterhouse - ever since you've given me that site and you that name (thank you both!), I've been trying to find all the Odyssey-related ones just for fun but I'm not sure how to go about that short of going on google and getting a list, which I am too stubborn to do. But it sure is fun looking at all the paintings while I'm browsing through on my little scavenger hunt!

A few weekends ago I met a fascinating octogenarian - 78 year old, whatever -who had just retired from the Met Opera as a second violinist after 46 seasons (despite failing orchestra at Juillard, which resulted in his drafting for the Korean War, which... etc). Anyway, Pavarotti was his chess partner whenever he was at or near the Met. Unfortunately Pavarotti was terrible at chess. My new acquaintance would purposefully make bad moves in order to let Pavarotti win, but no, the ploy never worked. After losing, Pavarotti would say, "You've beaten me, but you make me sing better!" And then he would go off to sing.

I think that is almost the only anecdote I know about Pavarotti, but since I'm listening to Pavarotti right now (it's just selected songs from his Lincoln Center telecast), I thought I would share.

good anecdote :)

I'm mildly obsessed with anecdotes about things I like, to the chagrin of all my friends, who then have to hear the anecdotes over and over and OVER again. I still have a lot of young Coleridge anecdotes I'm saving up for the blossoming spring...

9. leaf storm and other stories, gabriel garcia marquez; translated from the spanish by gregory rabassa
touchstones not working

as always, gabriel garcia marquez writes beautifully. his prose in translation is usually simple but his images glow. leaf storm and other stories consists of one novella, leaf storm, and six short stories: "the handsomest drowned man in the world," "a very old man with enormous wings," "blacaman the good, vendor of miracles," "the last voyage of the ghost ship," "monologue of isabel watching it rain in macondo," and "nabo." the short stories in this collection all have a poetic ring to them; with his signature magical realism, garcia marquez traces delicate pictures of the everyday cum fantastical. some of the short stories here are very well known (i'm thinking in particular of "a very old man with enormous wings"), and for good reason. the novella is another matter. here garcia marquez opts to tell his tale (which is i believe a first introduction to the village of macondo, which bobs up again later in one hundred years of solitude) through three different perspectives. this isn't necessarily a strike against the book, but i do feel the need to mention that the shifts in perspective were hard to follow; often i would read on for a page or two before finally picking up on a contextual clue that would allow me to distinguish between narrators. is this a flaw? i don't know. it may have lent itself to a dreamy, blurred state where past and present, person and person seemed equally hazy. the story itself was interesting anyway - questions of death, perception - although less interesting to me than other short stories in this collection.

ok let's hope any of that was something verging on coherence, because i did not have that much to say this time apart from "i usually like garcia marquez," and also i am horridly sick again. moodswinging like crazy (ha ha ha ha).

Argh! I hate it when all versions of a book are combined into one page. What if I'm reading two different translations? What if I'm reading two different footnotes for the same original text? Two differently edited takes? So annoying. I've also noticed that LT doesn't seem to really know what to do with Chinese characters because often works by the same author will be combined willynilly.

#36: I have noticed several of the book sites that I patronize have the same problem with combining versions of books. I do not like it either, but it is not limited to LT. I am not sure that there is anything that can be done about it, though.

Oh well. Pipe dreams on my part then, I suppose. Maybe I'll just start manually adding translations I want to keep distinct - or would that just muddle the problem?

10. a raisin in the sun, lorraine hansberry

Just sharing a good thing in lieu of book commentary: every month Criteron (my fave) collaborates with The Auteurs to present a free online film line-up, which is usually pretty good...

http://www.theauteurs.com/criterion

Thanks for the link amaranthic!

You're welcome. I hope someone gets as much use out of the offerings as I have, haha.

11. The Search for Modern China, Jonathan D. Spence

#42: What did you think of The Search for Modern China? It is on my 'must-read' list for the year.

I'm not well-versed in Chinese history, modern or otherwise, so I'm afraid I don't have much to say about it. For a beginner like me, I found it detailed and generally well-written. I think there were about four points in the text - I've got it written down somewhere - where Spence would use a term or reference an event he hadn't explained or explain something in such a manner that it would take you three pages to realize he was talking about, say, the Great Leap Forward (not an actual example), but other than those small blips he was generally quite good. I also wish he could have focused a bit more on writers, artists, and other cultural bastions but you can't have everything. I thought his brief overview of the Qing was very nice too. So in general, I'd recommend it if you're just looking for an introductory history like me - I don't know how helpful it would be to someone who was already familiar with everything, although there sure was a lot of detail!

For good measure, one of my favorite sections from the above:

"Building on an idea previously tried out by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky, Mao Dun and his associates, through widely distributed advertisements and announcements, asked people all over China to write in and say what had happened to them on a particular, randomly selected day--May 21, 1936. {... One} writer, in one of the cleverest and saddest submissions sent to Mao Dun, played on the difference of accents that led Chinese in the north to misinterpret the sentiments of their fellow countrymen in the south. On one street, he observed, hung a sign with this uplifting message:

Everything prospers, Heaven is protective.
People are heroes. The place is famous.

But if read with a Cantonese accent, and then reinterpreted according to sound, the slogan became more depressing:

Everything disintegrates, Heaven explodes.
People are extinct. The place is bare.

The author showed clearly that he felt it was the second version of the slogan that the Chinese should believe, not the first."

Spence, Jonathan D., The Search for Modern China. 2nd edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

12. District and Circle, Heaney

I may actually like these more than the poems in North. I'm thinking about it. For me, District and Circle in contrast to North moves into the realm of the personal and intimate; gone are esoteric extended mythological metaphors (Hercules and Antaeus, anyone?), and allusions seem primarily to be to memory or to Irish culture. For me, this is a welcome change. I still like our old Tollund Man in his fifty billionth reappearance ("The Tollund Man in Springtime"), I like the closing poem, I like the title cycle... I like most of the poems in here, actually.

#44: Thanks for the additional info.

No prob. Only wish I could have been of more help. I forgot to add that this is probably the most accessible history text I've read for a while.

13. of mice and men

heartbreaking. saved from predictability by excellent writing (but then, it is steinbeck) - rather than merely expected, the end of the dream and of the book is as inevitable as the deaths of the small animals lenny strokes. one thing i am puzzling over: the resemblance of - SPOILER - lenny's death at the end of the novel to the death of candy's dog near the beginning and linked with that whether george did the "right thing."

"saved from predictability by excellent writing"

Exactly my reaction. Much prefer East of Eden though. Excellent writing and unpredictability. :)

I'll have to read East of Eden then! Because I really did enjoy Of Mice and Men, but the whole time, I was just thinking, "Oh, I knew that was going to happen..."

I'm so behind in my Steinbeck. I think I read In Dubious Battle a long time ago and Grapes of Wrath of course, but that was it (and it was an awful long time ago).

14. a portrait of the artist as a young man, joyce

third fourth sections very difficult for me to slog through, third section in particular (fourth section redeemed by latter half) - sermonizing for me rather predictable and trite and uninteresting (yes i do realize that was the point...). loved the increasing complexity of language re: dedalus' maturation. joyce is beautiful still. smithy of the soul. hmmm.

15. the quiet american, graham greene

don't think i'm going to make it this year - far too busy and no time to read

Do keep posting though...? I like your books!

ditto what Rachael said

ditto what Rachael and Linda said

#53: Please do continue to post!

Thanks for all the support. I will definitely continue posting if/when I have time to read - though I don't know when that'll be!! (I kid; I'm reading right now, albeit slowly and in minuscule chunks.)

15. the quiet american. often, as i sat outside reading this book, people would approach me with commentary on how "trashy" or "seedy" or "pop lit" it or greene was for them. well, after completing this book, i have to disagree. the introduction of allegory and political commentary, the novel's emotional complexity, the excellent use of limited first person - all these contribute to make the quiet american for me a work of literature. that said, greene's writing for me is like reporting - clear and concise but rarely truly beautiful. for that reason (i'm shallow) and the flatness of its characters - he was making a point rather than a character study, after all - this book is not one of my favorites. but i'm happy to have read it. i was especially intrigued on the dialogue on faith and masculinity.

16. desert traces, which doesn't appear to be on LT, as translated by Michael A. Sells

this is a compilation of i think seven or so pre-islamic qasidas* in english translation. my favorite qasida, imru-ul-quais' mu'allaqat, for example as seen here http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/hanged/hanged1.htm , is not included. but that's okay, because other excellent qasidas are - shanfara, antara... i think the most fascinating thing for me is how qasidas technically have something of a form, as described by ibn qutaybah for example, and yet these qasidas excel through flouting to whatever extent that form. i'm not a scholar of arabic literature - just someone who likes to read it - but it seems to be that part of the appeal and power of the qasida lies in the way it wanders along inscribed or even prescribed lines - operating verb being 'to wander.'

*i'm not attempting the arabic plural because i don't know what it is - qasidat?

#59: I read one of Greene's books last year, A Burnt Out Case, but have not yet read The Quiet American. I will look for it. Thanks for the recommendation!

Oh, awesome! I didn't consider it a very complex book in some ways (you'll note that the most of the characters are a little one-dimensional, although of course this is intentional), but I liked it and I hope you do too.

17. season of migration to the north, tayeb salih

18. beloved, toni morrison

17. season of migration to the north - an underlauded classic of modern arabic literature. tayeb salih weaves a complex tale of desire and obsession, among other things. the basic plot of the short novel - only around 169 pages in my edition - is as follows: unnamed narrator, returning to his homeland from a stint studying poetry in the north, encounters the mysterious character of mustafa sa'eed and proceeds to unearth and discover his past. i won't say any more for fear of ruining it, although it would be hard to ruin; so much of the beauty lies in seemingly irrelevant incidents in the novel that although you essentially discover all salih says about sa'eed by the first fourth, each time you re-encounter the same trodden ground it seems equally fantastic. the translation unfortunately wasn't my favorite (although someone said this might have been a problem with the prose originally too) - sentences occasionally felt awkward and constructions artificial, but not so much that i would completely warn you away from denys johnson-davies or tayeb salih. the circling, piecemeal nature of the narrative really lends itself to rediscovery and re-interpretation. words and phrases come up over and over again as if floating from the depths of a river. i could go on for ages about, say, the moments of paradoxical possibility that emerge and re-emerge throughout the novel, but perhaps i am rambling nonsensically already... a really beautiful book and one that people don't know enough about.

as for beloved, i feel like i don't have to make a case for it; it's well-known enough already! morrison's unique quasi-colloquial style lends itself well to this story in the tradition of slave narrative. margaret garner, various historical incidents, medea, the bible in twisted form - these are just a few of the many allusions and references i thought i glimpsed in this many-layered novel. i'm sure parts of it - any parts relating to african mythology, for instance - went completely over my head, but in general i found this a fascinating book and definitely the best of morrison's that i've read thus far. themes, ideas etc that especially interest me off the top of my head are the concept of masculinity (re: paul d); shame, honor, pride; the community as salvation; memory and rememory; the role of the protector; shifts in tense; the set of first-person narratives in the middle of the novel... the one thing that did bother me about this novel was how easy sethe's life post-escape post-jail seemed to be. there was more than a fair share of horrors to be glimpsed in her former life as a slave, but her life as a free black in reconstruction-era ohio (i believe the end of the book coincides with the end of reconstruction? my us history is very shady, so don't trust me here) seemed surprisingly easy, though not carefree.

#64: The Salih book looks very good. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm glad you might consider reading it! I really think not enough people know about it. For me it was hard to get into at first but rewarding when I put a little intellectual energy into it.

19. medea, euripides

I read this in ancient Greek and then (for essay purposes) I read it in the Morwood translations as well as Ways (in Loeb) and two more that I can't remember. Somewhat dissatisfied with all translations, but that is the way of it. Interesting moments - Medea's motives for killing her children (shame; revenge; protection), the Women of Corinth speech (the quiet foot; "of everything that is alive and has a mind, we women are the most wretched creatures," lines 230-1; 7, Morwood); "We have woes--we don't need woes;" "I would rather stand in battle three times than bear one child;" etc etc etc.

edit: Or should I say ktl.

I was introduced to Medea through a production that PBS did 20 years or more ago starring Colleen Dewhurst. What a powerful play it was!

It is! Medea may be one of my favorite plays now. I haven't quite decided yet. this was a first reading for me.

20. the passion, jeanette winterson

So the story behind this one goes like this: long story short, I have a mad crush on this very straight girl. My advisor guessed this, probably from my constant lovelorn glances and uninteresting anecdotes. So when I complained to him that I've been feeling, well, a little emotionally all over the place lately, his response was to recommend me this book. It's about passion and also unrequited love and also lesbians. The cover looks really porny in my version - I swear it's not. This is a beautiful book - beautiful prose, beautiful magical realism (almost a fairy tale quality to it), beautiful. And short, so you can even read it in one day, although I'd rather savor it over several. The multiple recurrent phrases ("You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play" comes to mind... I later asked my advisor despondently, "How do you get over something like this?" His response: "You play!"), the evocative language, the tinge of historical fiction, all combine to create a wonderful little novel of love and loss, gambling, stakes, passion, madness, life. Perhaps a cliched review this time - but in love we are all cliched.

ETA: On second viewing, there are a few hackneyed generalizations and the like thrown out there. In general I like this book though.

21. unaccustomed earth, jhumpa lahiri

this collection is beautiful and resonating. i cannot write a review write now. on the topic of the mad crush on the very straight girl - yes it is still mad, yes she is still straight. i confessed and the reaction was devastating.

my advisor's input:

"I am not qualified to talk about affairs of the heart."

i know that i need to continue but it seems too hard. i know too that things will ease with time and that this is really a minor setback in the long term but right now i don't feel so good. perhaps i will be good tomorrow and then i will write a review.

22. men in the sun, ghassan kanafani

this is a great little book, but the most interesting story to me (although all are excellent) is easily the titular first, a short novella about human smuggling. characters and time mingle in a writing style that shifts from person to person, memory to memory with ease and subtlety.

>71 amaranthic:: I read it earlier this year and enjoyed it as well. My favorites were the titular story, also, and "The Land of Sad Oranges".

I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. In addition to Sad Oranges, I thought the horse one was sorta cute, but for me Men in the Sun by far outstripped the others.

23. prairies of fever, ibrahim nasrallah

A cryptic book, beautiful in parts. Names, faces, people, and time blur in a nightmarish quest for meaning and identity. The author is a poet, and between the multiple poems embedded in the text and his facile grasp of imagery and symbol, his training shows. The natural world blends with the human world and even ordinary interactions take on a dream-like quality.

At the end of the day, though, I am not sure I would recommend this book to a friend; certainly I would not recommend it to everyone. It takes a certain dogged determination to appreciate this non-linear narrative. At times the action felt gratuitous, as if Nasrallah was simply inserting images and plot because it came off as chaotic and confusing rather than to advance the novel or make any meaningful statement beyond the obvious. At other times, I would lose track of my place in the text or the chronology, as each chapter looks very similar to those surrounding it. All in all, a very interesting and challenging book, but perhaps not my favorite read this year.

#74: I think I will give that one a pass.

I don't blame you. It was the most challenging book I've read so far this year (Ulysses aside... but I'm still working on that one) and not one I was very excited about. To be fair, the ending was both expected and redeeming, though.

24. the plague, albert camus; I can't find my copy so don't know the translator.

After finishing this book, I have to agree with one of my friends who summarized his sentiments towards the novel in the following phrase: "interesting concept, but no beauty in the writing." I'm happy that I read this book; I consider it a significant work for its influence and philosophy, but I was not enamored of it as a novel. A bit slow for me at times, and perhaps it was the translation, but I was not fond of the prose.

25. the wild iris, louise gluck

Happily incoherent reading notes:

Deceptively, starkly simple language enfolds dark meaning. Strains of pervasive sadness and a perceptive depression ("I make / another case--being depressed, yes, but in a sense"...). The title poem. Concepts of death, heaven ("a critique of heaven," perhaps, "Scilla"), spring. Language as tied with conscious misery - "I speak / because I am shattered," "The Red Poppy;" "I didn't even know I felt grief / until that word came," "Trillium." Man becomes to the flowers as divinity is to us, and so through the flowers Gluck questions god, at times speaking from the vantage point of the garden, at others as a gardener, the gardener. Matins, vespers.

But somehow, despite everything, this collection did not speak to me. At times the images seemed formulaic, the statements bald and trite.

"Even here, even at the beginning of love
her hand leaving his face makes
an image of departure

and they think
they are free to overlook
this sadness."

Gluck, at least, doesn't.

ETA: A much more useful and interesting review can be found as a link in the reviews section of Wild Iris.

26. the prodigal, derek walcott

still formulating thoughts on this one

26. In lieu of an actual review (because I don't think I can quite do this book justice), here are some comments I sent a friend about the poem:

"I finished the Walcott - impressed only in parts. Perhaps I'm missing the point entirely and these flaws are all intentional and meaningful, but I found The Prodigal wandering and unfocused and at times even overwrought or redundant (you know how he piles metaphor upon metaphor upon metaphor, or perhaps he only does that in this book). Some of it was really precise though, and I was constantly surprised at his knack for imagery. Don't know if I recommend."

However, despite some negativity on my part, I do truly think that Walcott is an experienced and masterful writer, which is why I'm so mixed on this book and don't want to give a real review of it (that and I don't have time - but do I ever have time anymore?). His grasp of metaphor and simile is honestly amazing at times, even if he can get a little excessive in this poem and it can take some getting used to. Another thing that may take some adjusting on your part is his propensity for long, complex sentences that may demand rereading. That said, from what I've heard from others I don't think this is his best work and he did lose me with the (lack of) narrative a couple of times. The second half also seemed much stronger to me than the first; the first half was beautiful in sections but wasn't really going anywhere or meaning anything but rather was practically a travelogue in verse. Some themes that were interesting to me: reality as literature (before this got old... way old); conflict bw his local origins and cosmopolitan wanderings, History and history; age and time.

Before I go back to finishing my Arabic homework, let me just comment that I've either typed or thought to myself the sentiment that "I'm not going to write a review this time because I don't have time for it" on EVERY piece of commentary so far this year. Strange strange. My idea of a review in this case is a short essay that involves a detailed summary of the novel, some basic analysis, some criticism, and perhaps even a thematic schema. I never have time to do that! So instead you get haphazard first impressions, which perhaps works better for me anyway, because I'm not good at writing summaries without spoiling THE WHOLE BOOK OK.

27. weep not, child, ngugi wa thiong'o

a little disappointed, thoughts to follow once i get home and out of the funk of typing in lower-case

27. Weep Not, Child, Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Okay, here's my beef with Weep Not, Child: it's an interesting story set in a time of political strife that the uninformed masses (ex me) should learn more about, but the writing is not as compelling as the plot. Ngugi wa Thiong'o writes simply, which generally serves the story well, except for when he diverges into excessively contracted segments of blatant, explicit exposition. I found myself constantly marking long sections of text with "too fast - too told!" and "why are you explaining your symbols and so crudely?" I even came up with an abbreviation for the latter (wayeys, if you want to know) due to the number of times I had to use it. A long, unnatural conversation that was basically an excuse to dump information on the reader also stands out in my mind. Another problem I had was not with the book so much as the blurb on the back cover. My edition (African Writers Series) describes Weep Not, Child as a one revolving around "two small boys." Not true! Kamau, the other small boy mentioned besides the protagonist Njoroge, is barely mentioned and does not prove pivotal to the plot. I was surprised to find him essentially dropped from the text after the first few chapters. I also found the predictability of the characters annoying (or maybe I've just read too many books like this), and the white settlers are one-dimensional caricatures; I understand that from the third person limited viewpoint of the oppressed black, they surely must seem arbitrarily cruel, but could we not have had some more depth and perception in here? I found Howlands especially bothersome. At first he seemed to be a well-rounded character; attention is paid to his love of the land and seeming escape from England, for example, but ultimately he becomes a heavy-handed stereotype. Invested in "the settlers' way" (78), he wishes only to "reduce everything to his will" (78). A further fleshed character would have lent the book needed complexity.

That said, there are some interesting themes raised in this text: masculinity, powerlessness, and cowardice (I'm still thinking over this one); progress, Progress, and ancestral ways; and of course, class and race.

>81 amaranthic: very neat expression of how I feel about a "proper review" as well...

84> Which may be why I have your Further Confessions thread bookmarked in my LT folder! ;)

Ok, this isn't a review, but I just wanted to say that I'm finally over a quarter of the way through Ulysses YAY!!!!!

And understanding nothing because I want to finish reading it once before turning to guides and notes and lectures. But you know, sometimes it's nice just to read things for how beautiful they are rather than how beautiful their meaning.

#86: Congratulations! I do not think I have ever attempted Ulysses, but I stand in awe of those who have.

>86 amaranthic:: I read it earlier this year. I feel total empathy! :-)

Well done, amaranthic!! I'm going to try and whisper this (let's see what LT lets me get away with in HTML...) but I wrote a dissertation on Ulysses many years ago when I was at university and think it's a wonderful book. I've read a fair bit of the critical literature, but I never ploughed through the big annotated eds; I would really recommend Richard Ellmann's James Joyce, which is a monster book, but a really excellent biography and has some illuminating commentary on the texts.

Drat, no whispering.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes! I'll check out the Ellman. I don't even know where to start looking for commentary so that's really helpful!

28. ulysses

Honestly, I don't think I'll be able to add anything new or interesting to the dialogue, so I'll refrain from my usual lopsided commentary. Instead, let me just say: I LOVE this book. I also LOVE being "done!!!!" I plan to take a long hiatus from all Joyce-related paraphernalia, at least for the next couple of weeks. Joyce took some time off from writing after Ulysses in order to recuperate - I think I deserve a little time off too! Or at least a little more time to ponder...

Well done!! I'm on the lookout for Declan Kiberd's Ulysses and Us - which has been described as "an attempt to reclaim Ulysses for the masses" - at the moment. Supposed to be good (but maybe not straight after the original....)

Congrats - I am always impressed by anyone who can finish Ulysses!!

>92 amaranthic:: I read Ulysses earlier this year. I liked the book a bit less than you did...probably because I understood less. :-)

Tad: Or perhaps I'm the one who understands less, thus liking it more in my ignorance... ;) Who knows. I can't say I understood much of it at all! I liked it largely on a superficial level - apart from a few bumps, I found the stylistics largely inventive and beautiful. And I just really like Bloom.

I'll have to check out that book, Flossie! And thanks, Cait! I'm so happy I've finally finished it lucidly once - at least this way I kind of know te bare bones of what people are talking about when they discuss Ulysses!

In terms of books about Ulysses, I've heard good things about Karen Lawrence's Odyssey of Style (obviously about the style) and Thornton's Allusions in Ulysses as well. I haven't really started digging yet though. I know there's an Ulysses-reading group on LT somewhere, so I'm sure they have more suggestions!

And Tad, I just ran over to read your review of Ulysses, and I was intrigued by your maxim: "Any literature, sufficiently abstruse, is indistinguishable from the un-profound." Would you then consider literature - art, even - bettered when universal and worsened when localized?

I didn't find myself that mired by this question while reading Ulysses, but I think that was only because I expected to run into the problem, because Ulysses is a (singularly?) localized and perhaps inaccessible text; I definitely fell into this philosophical conundrum while reading TS Eliot for the first time last year!

>97 amaranthic:: No, I don't think so. Or, at least, for a given definition of the word 'bettered' I don't think so.

I think there is nothing wrong with universal literature or art—I'm not one of those who operates on a (spoken or unspoken) principle of "if everyone can understand it, then it must not be very good." Yet, at the same time, I don't deny that very profound things can be said that require the consumer to have a given body of knowledge or understanding in order to be appreciated.

My point was more along the lines that, without understanding, there can be no evaluation. If I cannot understand a given book...say, Ulysses...then how am I able to distinguish it from drivel? It's not that I'm saying the book is equivalent to drivel...I'm saying that I cannot distinguish it from drivel.

It doesn't mean that someone else can't make that distinction and find value in Ulysses...which, I assume, is why it's considered an landmark of English literature.

Does this help or paint me as even more of an idiot? :-)

No, it definitely helps, and you're not an idiot :). Thank you for responding! I actually agree with you; I was just curious as to whether your point would bleed over into other terrain.

And I think that - "without understanding, there can be no evaluation" - is why I am not writing a review of Ulysses other than to say that I enjoyed it on a superficial level. I don't feel qualified to attempt an evaluation that I cannot adequately defend!

>99 amaranthic:: I guess my reaction to visual arts is similar. For example, I respond to somewhere around Picasso...by the time we get to Pollock, I don't have a clue.

I'm certainly not saying that Pollock isn't a major artist. I'm simply saying that I can't understand something like this enough to distinguish it from a drop cloth. So, in those cases, I simply don't judge...I let others place a value on them.

I guess my reaction to Pollock is the same as to Ulysses - an immature and incoherent "That's pretty!"

I definitely understand where you're coming from, though. I only wish more people had that attitude.

I'm thinking of doing Middlemarch next after the books I'm reading right now - any opinions, anyone? I have a good friend who reads it about every five years as a rate-of-change novel, which is a pretty good recommendation, but was wondering if anyone had any other thoughts.

Also, I don't want to, like, inject flippancy into the Happy/Unhappy thread right now out of respect to people who are having a hard time, so I'm posting my happy in my own thread instead: I GOT INTO MY DREAM COLLEGE YAY!!

Not to put up a huge glaring sign indicating my age or anything, I mean.

Congrats!

Thank you. I'm so relieved and happy because it was a wait list situation that just dragged on and on. But now it's over! And happily so!

Ok, that's enough incoherent enthusiasm from me now. I did get some reading done in between the running around squealing - #29 was David Sedaris' when you are engulfed in flames, thoughts to follow tomorrow when I am less tired! (Light reading: so completely necessary for me after Ulysses. I still haven't recovered, although I'm already starting to toy with the idea of giving it another go.)

I just found your thread. I'm glad that you enjoyed The Passion, I have always enjoyed Winterson. I found that one interesting, as it was the only one I've read of hers that was set in the past. My favourite one is Written on the Body which has a narrator where you never know what gender they are.

oh, I'll have to check that book out! That actually sounds really interesting, especially as I love gender issues. So far the only other work I have read by her is Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, which I read a couple years ago and it totally creeped me out somehow. I think it was the mother. Scary.

Anyway, I read it on recommendation from a friend who used to teach it in a conservative Catholic school... go figure.

29. When You are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris

So I really like David Sedaris. I really, really like David Sedaris. That said, I did not like this book; in fact, I disliked it so much that I now refuse to write a full review of it. In short, I was underwhelmed by the rambling, unfocused essays and general monotony. There were a few essays that were memorable - Helen was all right; Mrs. Peacock was another decent one, although I'm starting to think that perhaps these essays were notable not for their quality but for the eccentricities of their characters. In general, however, the book was startlingly ordinary - appropriately ironic, perhaps, for a book meant to elevate the mundane.

>101 amaranthic:: I love Middlemarch, although it's not exactly a "light" read.

>102 amaranthic:: well done!!

Congratulations on your college acceptance. The next four years will be very exciting (and also expensive--I know because I'm paying for 2 kids in college right now).

I agree Middlemarch is a great read, though it requires concentration at times.

Maybe I will do Middlemarch next then! I haven't had much success with "light reading" anyway - I think I must be mistaking "badly written" for "light" or something.

And thank you both for the congratulations. I'm very excited already! Not so excited for any possible loans down the road, though. I'm actually taking a gap year so I get a little more time to think about what courses I want to take and what fields I'm looking to study, which is good, because I really have to pare my list down.

30. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky; trans. Constance Garnett

Excuse bizarre paragraph breaks; I write this in the rush of emotion directly following closing the cover of the book, and so my thoughts may be illogical and, as always, incoherent.

How to begin? Where to begin? Dostoevsky is a genius. I could end my review here, but you know me; I must always ramble on conceitedly and clutch onto my petty grievances. The Brothers Karamazov hardly needs to be defended as a work of art or retold in my clumsy words, but I shall summarize it nonetheless. Dostoevsky describes the tragic decline (or perhaps I should restrict myself to a less loaded, less emotionally compulsive word - "tale," maybe, or "epic") of the Karamazov family with a great, complex sensitivity. Three brothers - Alyosha, Dmitri, and Ivan - and a fourth illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, are caught up in the repercussions of their father's life and death. The back cover of my edition, a ratty Signet Classics, proclaims the murder of the father out right, and for the first few chapters of the book I was furious that my read was "spoiled" already. But I came to realize that the murder is almost incidental, irrelevant, and in fact doesn't even happen until the halfway point. The Brothers Karamazov is not, as the back cover initially led me to believe, a discussion of the murder itself, although far too many pages are devoted to rehashing it; rather, it is a delicate portrayal of character and humanity.

Dostoevsky works well with the intricacies of plot and deep human insight. Even the despicable Fyodor K (my back cover contends that he is "one of the most loathsome characters in all literature") is fleshly, fundamentally sympathetic. In a way, every character feels an archetype; Dostoevsky goes so far as to assign potential interpretation of each of the brothers from the mouth of his prosecuting lawyer, and broad statements in dialogue seem to indicate similarly typesets ("The Russians"... "the Europeans"). But his attention to detail draws life and depth from his characters.

However, at times the novel did feel overly lengthy; at other times, the pedantic and now pedestrian nature of the dialogues on socialism, the church, ktl came off as heavy-handed to this modern reader rather than illuminating. As mentioned before, I found the numerous re-shufflings of the murder a little excessive; could we have done with more concision?

Ultimately, though, beyond all questions of pace, The Brothers Karamazov is plot-driven, as life is; at once predictable and unexpected, as life is. Dostoevsky has succeeded in capturing something of the human spirit. I've heard that The Brothers Karamazov is weak in comparison to, say, Crime and Punishment, which I have no experience with; if this book is but a bland tincture, I can only say that I look forward to reading the latter.

Finally, some notes and possible themes I jotted down, unsorted and as of yet thoughtless: questions of honor, shame, class, society. Childhood - why the contrast between Ilusha's death and Zossima's? The past; shifts between generations; a tragedy of ideas.

have started middlemarch but may need to take a breather w something shorter - we'll see!

possible side effects, augusten burroughs

I just finished this book and I can now barely remember any of it. There was a story about his "good" grandmother and the tooth fairy that stood out - I can't really recall anything else that was as amusing. I guess this just wasn't the book for me. Some of these essays were funny enough; others felt, well, monotonous and all too familiar. Condemnation: uneven. Many of the essays seemed to lack a defining focus - perhaps I'm a traditionalist at heart, but I prefer writing that is a little more cohesive. Condemnation: scattered.

Better at the beginning, increasingly rocky as I neared the end. At times veering into the sentimental and hallmark... I've heard great things about Running with Scissors, though...

32. the complete persepolis, majane satrapi

I guess I was left with more questions than answers. For example: what does placing this in a comic-book format really lend to the story? Does it balance what is lost? How does one evaluate a graphic novel? Kai ta loipa ad nauseum (yes, mixing my languages... shame on me).

33. running with scissors, augusten burroughs

Despite my unhappy experience with his Possible Side Effects, I decided to give Burroughs a second chance and read the book that gave him fame in the first place. MUCH better, although still hardly a masterpiece. Burroughs has no real talent for literary beauty (although this book is already a vast improvement even stylistically from that other), but he sure has had some interesting experiences. He's in best form reminiscing on his crazy childhood and finding the humor in situations that really are bizarre and ridiculous rather than trying too hard to make things seem so. The affected tone he uses in Possible Side Effects comes off as more natural here now that his topics aren't so stultifyingly mundane and ill-treated. There were a few dud chapters, especially near the end of the book (and god - please, memoir writers, the trope where you have a childhood friend or other figure from the past tell your former self that you should write a memoir? Don't do it), but in general this was a much more enjoyable experience than my last... not that that's saying much.

Some Arabic-learning resources I have found and like. I'm putting this here so I can find them again later!

My computer refuses to install Arabic, so I use this. http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/

Conjugates verbs.
http://acon.baykal.be/

My textbook is Al-Kitaab fii Ta3allum Al3arabiya Part One. There are some sites (I've found two) that offer recordings of the chapters and rips from the DVDs. I won't post them here but you should be able to find them with some googling. Middlebury has one site, for instance.

A series of interviews from Duke.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=39B0B85340E7B791

Children's news programming at Shababnews.
http://www.youtube.com/user/shababnews
http://shababnews.tv

Aswaat Arabiyya offers videos sorted into different language levels. Supposedly there's also an option to play each video slower.
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/aswaat/about0.php

This isn't Arabic-exclusive, but I find it an useful resource. Self-explanatory.
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

http://www.e-arabic.com/category/3-el-resources/grammar-3-el-resources

TV.
http://www.fomny.com/tv-arabic.php

Obviously, I'm a beginner, so I have been looking at resources with that in mind, but many of these links can be helpful to any skill level.

What a great list of resources! I'm going to copy/paste them into a document for myself... I've given up trying to teach myself Arabic and plan on looking into a language course at a local community college for the fall. How is the learning going for you so far?

Glad to have been of help! There are also a few podcasts that you can find on iTunes. My favorite is called ArabicWebcasts, by Richard Robin and Rana Kanaan. It offers news in simplified, slowed down Arabic (normal news goes at a breakneck speed and is "telegraphic," to use their word). I don't understand much of it yet (I've just begun!), but I think it's important to listen to a variety of things to train your ears to pick out the sounds, even if you don't know the words yet. This podcast also supplies vocabulary words in the notes section as well as a link to a quiz for reading comprehension when you are able to understand more of the news item.

Youtube also has some episodes of the Arabic Sesame (Simsim) Street, which is useful for drilling basic vocabulary.

I think that really IS all I have in the way of resources, now! (: My learning is going fine. I took a summer session (introductory level) at an university just now, so Arabic is still fresh in my mind. Listening is super hard for me though, which is why so many of my links are to video and audio sites! Good luck with your studies!

Burning out... am totally demotivated to review my Arabic with textbook drills. I'm still listening to a lot of realia, but I know I need the foundational stuff to improve my basic knowledge but I just have absolutely no inclination to conjugate another list of verbs...

My first book in Arabic arrived today - of course I won't be able to read much of it freestyle right now, but I'm very excited to dig in.

Here's a picture from the internet as reposted on my Arabic language blog (so if you can make out my incoherent attempts at sentences but not the pretty printed calligraphy, you'll be able to tell from my text that it's Mahfouz, etc).

http://atheling.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/كتابي-جديد/

Cool beans!

It's even more beautiful in real life because the gold font for the author's name is actually shiny, but it actually does not come off at cheesy at all. Or maybe I'm just blinded by my love and the reflecting light, but as my brother says a hundred times a day, "yanno, whatever."

I read veeeeeeeeeeeery slowly, though. Don't know if I'll make it to 34, much less 75 this year, now that I'm focusing on this book!

I actually listen to a ridiculous amount of Arabic pop music, and I've found that really has helped in terms of training my ears for the sounds. I even sing along, 99% of the time not having a clue what they're saying... some of the songs have translated videos on YouTube, but at the very least it's a fun way to learn some (useless) phrases and common words!

That sounds like a great idea. I have a hard time learning words from listening - I'm more of a kinesthetic/visual learner, so writing things out and reading texts is easier for me - but that just means I need to work more on those skills! Are there any pop singers that you especially like? I know a friend of mine is really into Nancy Ajram...

Came across this thread - it's a testament to how bad my memory is that I had already forgotten about it. Perhaps I should move some more complete reading notes on here so random passerby don't have too bad an opinion of me.

Just wandered in to share that at gosh darn last I have FINALLY procured a copy of Season of Migration to the North in the Arabic. I love this book but had a hell of a time trying to track it down.

That is awesome that you started a language study blog. I've never seen one of those before. Are you just posting your thoughts, translations? That's really nice that people are helping you out with corrections.

Well, I haven't written a lot in it lately because life suddenly sped up for me, but mostly I just post my thoughts. Originally I wanted to post translations but my Arabic isn't good enough right now for me to feel confident that I am translating correctly - most of my translation is Mandarin-English. But we'll see, maybe as I get better... ;)

Anyway, corrections. Someone told me about this site, lang-8.com, which I really love for corrections. You can post your text and usually a native speaker will come along and help you. You can also correct other people's texts. The only problem is that sometimes you have to be discerning, and I don't know how much use it would be once you are at an intermediate or advanced level (for example, from what I see, Mandarin corrections are largely good for basic sentences but confused for more complex concepts), but I really think it's a helpful resource.

Thanks for your support!

127: great site indeed, thanks for the heads-up!

No prob! I love sharing what, well, I love.

In other news, as I said on another forum today (gosh, I feel like such a seasoned veteran of the internet), I feel like a gourmand coming off starvation. I have not really touched any English language books save for textbooks and two translations from the Arabic since I began studying that language this summer. I think I did try to read a little more of Middlemarch at some point, but even the amazing Eliot was shoved aside after a few pages. Anyway, today, feeling burned out from studying, I bought myself a collection of short stories by Mavis Gallant, and seriously, I cannot stop gasping at how amazing it is to actually understand what I am reading. I mean, I can look at a word and READ IT OUT LOUD. I can even know what it means, an endless source of wonder and entertainment. I can skim passages and savor phrases. I can't get over the fact that I can move my eyes from left to right and follow the shape of the sentence. Actually, in fact, sometimes I accidentally try to read from right to left... and I still understand what's going on, albeit through lens of Yoda.

I'm so bowled over by all this that I can't even summon my usual jolt of crabby criticism. I just finished reading a translation of Mahfouz's Karnak Cafe, guys, and I did not stop to check a dictionary even once. Then I looked at but did not finish Derrida's translated Of Grammatology, a book I have in the past treated much as some treat lovers who have just revealed after long sexual relationships their history of AIDs, and I found myself transfixed at the title page, repeating the word "grammatology" again and again. That word has, count them, 12 letters, but you know what? I don't even have to think frantically back to a scribbled flashcard to summon up some meaning. I am in complete awe.

Guys, did I mention that I can SKIM???

I'm posting here a short section from an email I just shuttled off about one of the books I just read. Not very in-depth but perhaps useful to me in the future, anyway.

"So... reviews a little more enthusiastic than usual, maybe unwarranted. Karnak Cafe is perhaps interesting more as a study of society (or how Mahfouz perceived that particular historic era) than as a work of literature, at least in translation, but he has his moments of lucidity. I found myself recalling, of all people, George Eliot when reading certain passages. Mahfouz has a certain sensitivity towards his narrator that recalled the tone of Middlemarch to me in that both have at times a way with astute generality. Interestingly, Mahfouz cut off his story much as several other Arabic writers I have read do - abruptly and seemingly inconclusively. I'm not sure that it did him many favors in terms of this novella, though."

Despite your reservations, I'm very tempted by anything that 'recalls Middlemarch'...

I have to warn you that it probably doesn't to anyone except for me though - it's very different stylistically, thematically, in terms of content. And Eliot is also much, much better with character study. But there were moments when I couldn't help thinking, "Hey, this musing is just like that scene when Dorothea is thinking about her husband and..."

I do think it's an interesting book, especially with the historic backdrop, and short enough to read in an hour, and it was worthwhile for me - I just have to warn you that you might come away with a feeling that you've sorely overestimated the accuracy of my judgement... ;)

I'm now trying to pinpoint why Karnak reminds me so much of Eliot at times, because now that I really think about it, it probably will seem like an unlikely association to everyone else. I think it comes down to this: Eliot is a master at expressing overarching views that are somehow still rooted in accurate assessment. Contrast against the legions of writers who find themselves flailing with cliched generalities. I don't think Mahfouz quite reaches Eliot's level of skill, but at times he does evoke something similar.

Now I want to dig up that book again and find what passages gave me this connection...

Amaranthic, would you mind posting what languages you're trying to learn? LOL, everytime I think I got them all you keep adding. So far it seems, arabic, chinese, french, and...?

Have you tried Sanskrit? I hope to someday read Sanskrit and Greek so I can tackle all those ancient classics.

Well, part of the problem is that I've tried to learn many languages in the past only to turn to other things. (I'm really flighty about things that involve concerted effort.) So although I have some enormous amount of language learning textbooks and material in foreign languages, I can't say that I really know any of them well except, I suppose, Mandarin, which is the language I've had the most experience with. I lingered with Ancient Greek for three years but am now very rusty indeed. I also recently discovered an obsession with Arabic, but I am currently mostly just studying Modern Standard. As for French, although I lived in Paris for a very short while, I've unfortunately forgotten most of my knowledge of that beautiful language, which is really upsetting when I come across old diaries written in it...

I'm really curious about Sanskrit too! I think it's so beautiful as well. I definitely want to look into it in the future, but I don't know when I'll have time, especially as I've heard it is so complex. I'm interested in Russian too, which makes me look like I'm trying to score brownie points with the CIA or something after Arabic and Mandarin, but I am really curious about the (loosely defined) East so getting a taste of three important civilizations would be fascinating.

I looked back at Middlemarch today and although I feel strongly that there is some thin thread between the two books, the more I investigate the two novels, the more I note the differences and distances rather than any parallel. So for now I'll catalogue this incident as unexamined impulse and set it aside for the medley of books I am dabbling in now, including a translation of The Master and Margarita, which I keep on meaning to sit down and give the old one-two to only to find that I have no such time. But the week is young and I have no real work to do, so we'll see.

I have also discovered a translation of Swann's Way on my bookshelf, which I meant to read sometime last year but never did. Seems like a book I "should" read just so I'll know what the fuss is (or isn't) about.

Just discovered your thread. Fascinating stuff! I'm really impressed with your language studies, it's something I've always wanted to do and never gotten around to.

Your thoughts on all the books you've read this year are fascinating. Can't wait to read about the rest of your year! Also, congrats on finishing Ulysses... another thing I've never managed.

It was a while ago, but about your crush on the straight girl, just want to say I've been there. Although, like your advisor, I may not be qualified to remark on affairs of the heart, lol, I know that it hurts, but hopefully things will be better for you in college!

I did 4 Uni courses in Mandarin as well, and I did Grade 12 French but most of it has fallen to the wayside from disuse. Even when I was in the midst of it, my biggest problem was "thinking" in the language (secondary to hearing/speaking... was always pretty good at reading/writing). That's why I'm so impressed with your attempts at blogging and diarizing in other languages!

137 - allthesedarnbooks: Thanks for the encouragement. As for language learning, I think there is always time for it - insomuch as there is time for anything like this - after all, at least in my opinion, it's not something easily accomplished in great surges but instead something to be chipped away at, slowly, carefully. It's hard for me sometimes to find a few minutes every day but I find that I do better with five or fifteen daily rather than an hour every two weeks. Other people will probably disagree, though!

138 - Cauterize: Always nice to see someone else interested in Mandarin - it's getting more attention lately, but a lot of people I know drop it after just a term or two! I usually have a similar problem with hearing/speaking, but I had an unexpected aha moment with Arabic about two weeks ago. I still don't speak correctly or fluently, but I find myself blathering in Arabic in my mind quite frequently. I figure accuracy will come with time and experience.

Completely unrelated to languages but I'm now almost finished with the Mavis Gallant short stories and for the most part loving it! Will post further thoughts when done with the collection (it's Paris Stories as selected by Michael Ondaatje).

#139: My undergrad degree was in International Relations and you had to take 2 junior and 2 senior level courses in a language. Actually, for 2 of those credits, I took a travel study with 20 other people and we spent 5 weeks in Harbin, Heilongjiang where we had classes taught by a local in a university there. It was awesome!

I don't know about you, but the most frustrating thing for me would be I would see a sign, know all the characters in the sign, but still have no clue what it meant! Whether it be a proper name of a brand or just I didn't know what the combination of the characters meant, but it was very frustrating to be in the position where you could "read" it but you couldn't read it!

Ooops, sorry I didn't get back to you... I've been mostly off LT for August, trying to get back into the swing of things again... as for pop singers, I tend to grab compilations and listen to those (which don't always have English lists of their names) but a few off the top of my head are Ruby/Roubi, Nancy Ajram, Hakim, Haifa... but my absolute favorite at the moment is Natacha Atlas. She has such a beautiful voice, and her music is dynamic (unlike some of the other pop stars whose albums consist of reconstituted drum & synth lines).

On another note, you sound JUST like me when it comes to languages. I grab hold of one obsessively, study it, and then tend to become disinterested when I reach that point where a concerted effort is needed to maintain it. I also have piles of language materials, none of which I know well (or at all, anymore!). I studied Attic/Doric/Homeric (let's just call it ancient... lol) Greek for 3.5 years, Latin for 2.5 years, Biblical Hebrew for a year, Spanish for a year, Russian for 3 weeks, Arabic for a month, Egyptian Hieroglyphs for a month, German for... actually, I never got around to it, though I signed up for a course (talk about a waste of $500).

I'd love to re-visit Russian... I want to take a trip to the country someday, but I'd like to be able to read basic signs and such first. I also want to learn Hindi, Arabic (but you already knew that), Aramaic (have some materials for that too), cuneiform (those materials are on the way), re-visit Egyptian hieroglyphs, review ancient Greek, and... and... and...

Hmm. I think we may have a similar mindset when it comes to languages. :)

My internet has been a little whacked out lately, hence my lack of response. Anyway...

I'm actually thinking of doing a summer abroad at Harbin in the new future, but I haven't decided yet. As for signs, I know what you mean about how it feels when you "know" all the characters/words but aren't sure what it means... early in my Mandarin studies, I decided to read Anna Karenina in the Chinese translation. The only problem was that, well, those Russian names sure are long, and I must have looked up a couple character by character before realizing that they weren't actual sentences...

dk:

I'll check out Natacha Atlas. I've been off vocals for a while, so it will be nice to listen to human voices again. And I just wanted to say that you're obviously stealing my identity, what with the interest in hieroglyphs (man! SO complicated) and Aramaic and cuneiform... at risk of revealing my geographic location, I just want to say that I actually chose my college in part for their Hittitology course offerings, so yeah, go cuneiform! I don't know when I'll have time for a new language, though - Arabic is consuming all my energy!

I don't think I will go into detail about the books I read this week right NOW. I'll type up a paragraph later when I get home.

Paris Stories, Mavis Gallant

Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels

and I revisited one of my favorites, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

#142: Brutal! Looking up words in a Chinese dictionary is so long and hard too! Stroke numbers or roots.... ugh.

I suppose I'm used to the long process of looking up words in Chinese dictionaries by now - I don't really think much of it anymore. Although I did spend half an hour looking up the wrong radical the other day. Frustrating!!

Really no time to get into detail on these books (not that I ever do anyway) - I am suddenly submerged in work and I actually do not currently have internet access except when in coffee shops. A few quick thoughts.

Mavis Gallant - often takes a while to warm up but can be superb. I probably only loved two or three of the stories in this collection, but it felt like I had enjoyed all of them. Fugitive Pieces is one of the most beautiful contemporary works I have read recently. Perhaps at times it suffers too much from Michaels' training as a poet. In another book this would be a failing tendency but in the context of reconstructing the Holocaust it feels rather like an inspired choice. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, meanwhile, remains one of my least favorite books of my experience.

the good soldier

I believe Ford was a friend of Lowell - or perhaps a mentor? The details escape me.

I was supposed to recover my internet connection today but sadly, not to be so. I am by now quite accustomed to writing all my emails in the library, though, and really, I don't call for much more than that, so I am not too disappointed.

40 or thereabouts (not inclined to do careful counting), white noise, don delillo

six days, halim barakat

>145 amaranthic: I loved Fugitive Pieces, though not as much as The Winter Vault (which I read first) - the loss of Jakob in the final section, even though you know it's coming, was just too hard for me. I know what you mean about the poetry too, but I actually really love books that are written like this - C.E. Morgan's All the Living was another very poetical book I loved this year.

I'm happy to hear that you liked The Winter Vault - I've been considering reading it sometime this year, based on my great experience with Fugitive Pieces, but I've been warned off thus far. I've heard, for instance, that Michaels gets needlessly, uselessly detailed, even long-winded. Perhaps I'll seek it out now though, just to decide for myself.

one day in the life of ivan denisovich (trans); the unbearable lightness of being (trans); disgrace; auschwitz (miklos nyiszli); night (wiesel); the white tiger; house of sand and fog, fasting, feasting; a couple of ed mcbain crime novels that i can't remember the names of now (ironic considering they were chosen for hilarious titles - i think one was give the boys a great big hand); the remains of the day; we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families; kitchen (banana yoshimoto); the bluest eye; long day's journey into night; paradise of the blind; blink (malcolm gladwell); a bend in the river (naipaul); middlemarch; cheaper by the dozen; a wild sheep chase; my life and hard times (thurber); the sun also rises (hemingway); the beautiful things that heaven bears (mengestu); female chauvinist pigs (levy); the palm-wine drinkard (tutuola); a heartbreaking work of staggering genius (eggers... who I usually dislike, but, surprise!); rickshaw (lao she, trans. james, who actually translates, unlike the 1945 evan king...)

>148 amaranthic: I thought The Winter Vault was wonderful - didn't personally have a problem with detail, and I didn't find it long-winded. I thought it was very moving, and I also absolutely loved all of the stuff in the first section about the building of the Aswan dam, and in particular the moving of the temple. I lived in Egypt for a couple of years as a child, and never knew that it had been moved - it's such an incredible place, and one of my most vivid memories of childhood is visiting at dusk. And then besides that, the relationship between Jean and Avery is so sensitively done.

I will say that, like Fugitive Pieces, it did feel as if it lost its way, particularly emotionally, in the final section. And it does definitely repay being read very slowly and carefully, because so much of its beauty is in the language. So it's not everyone's cup of tea certainly!

Thanks for the extra information. I probably won't get to reading The Winter Vault for a while - I've put a ban on buying any more books until I at least manage to get the ones I have up on the shelf, and as much as I love the idea of libraries, I rarely read the library books I borrow (not being able to write directly in them throws me off a little). But I'll definitely put it on my huge and growing To Read list. Sounds great!

I've been reading a lot lately, but interestingly I don't have a lot to say at all. I did finish Middlemarch in the end - I got to the last hundred pages sometime in the summer but ended up taking it a chapter at a time between lots of other reading because I just didn't want it to end so quickly! Anyway, I was struck by my experience with Middlemarch at how hard it was for me to express concrete reasons for my feelings on it. I did like the book a lot, but wasn't quite sure why. I had a hard time pinpointing any qualms because every time I came up with some minor quibble, I'd start wondering whether my complaint was perhaps a little too grounded in my experience as a reader of primarily contemporary works. Likewise, when I found myself unmoved by scenes that I would generally be quite swept away by, I questioned whether this was because the world Eliot moves in - the linguistic ideals she holds, the social context, the historical - was so far removed from mine that, with my limited experience of her era and contemporaries, I was actually viewing the work through a lens so obscured as to function as a veil. A friend suggested that another reason for my emotional distance might be that I have never been married and thus could not identify with some of the situations. I don't think I agree entirely - I'm not black and haven't lived during the Reconstruction either, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Morrison's Beloved - but it's certainly true that our experiences color our understanding of art. Perhaps in another decade I will have married and when I read Middlemarch then, I'll see something completely new. I'm reminded of another friend's experience with the book. He read Middlemarch first when unmarried, then newly married, then newly divorced, remarried, now long-married... he reads it every few years, as a matter of fact. I asked him why. "To see where I am," he said. Perhaps I'll need another couple rereadings before I can gauge my own position.

To see where I am - I love that. I first read Middlemarch as a very definitely unmarried 16 year-old and loved it - but then, we were also studying elements of the history in my history class at the time, so I think the barriers to immersion in Eliot's world were considerably lowered.

Does make me want to re-read... and also make me realise I have absolutely no idea where my copy is. Argh.