Ganeshaka's wobbly trail thru the Library, down the block, and over the rainbow - 2009

Oops, it's March already..."I'm late, I'm late...for a very important warren."

falling falling falling spinning spinning !start the book at the beginning!

"Whatever have I read, Red Queen?"

I know! I'll check my so-called "reviews" to remember. Ah yesss...one thumb makes you bigger...ten thumbs means you're unbearably small...or was it the other way round?

ONE The Monk that Matt, watta crazy kid, stay away from my sister!

TWO An Adultery Theroux - toot toot - picking up steam

THREE It happened in Boston do not talk to the pigeons, no lumps please

FOUR Who was changed and who was dead barbara comyns is the greatest writer you've never heard of "down by the riv vuh" lalala

FIVE The Fountainhead ayn rand is the least writer you've heard greatly of

SIX The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton oh that wicked Russell Greenan, he's been following me around taking notes

SEVEN EIGHT NINE The Gormenghast Trilogy Mervyn Peake! Nick Drake! Was I dead in the '60s?

TEN Laura Warholic the sexual intellectual I like to imagine Theroux being read aloud to me by Yogi Berra, and clarified, when necessary, by Casey Stengel. Casey Stengel, am I ancient or what? What!

Ten books, ten weeks? Perhaps I'll make 50...but don't let that damn Proust with his tray of madeleines in the back door. Send him back to bed or over to the Joyce's house, where they could use a few snacks at the never-ending Wake.

Had to read your thread, after seeing your subject line!
Four: I have heard of (and read) Barbara Comyns. She is fine, isn't she?
Five: Dreadful dreck, but everyone ought to read one of her novels at about age 19. It makes you feel so grown-up to spot all the fallacies and preposterosities.
Gormenghast: Ah...I wasn't DEAD in the 60's, just young and ignorant in my little river town hidden away from the happenings.

Read on, MacDuff.

BTW, what a gorgeous photo on your profile. Do you get to enjoy that view regularly?

Far too often, in winter, the view is like this http://tinyurl.com/icanseerussia But, as the song goes, on a clear day you can see forever.

Funny you should mention "little river town", because we are moving to a little river town very soon. The view won't be quite as breathtaking, http://tinyurl.com/au93xu but then again, we won't get frostbitten while enjoying it.

ELEVEN Jane and Prudence After reading Chapter XII of Laura Warholic, the infamous A Controversial Essay, I felt a need to shift a little weight to the other side of my boat and introduced myself to Barbara Pym, via Jane and Prudence. This little dollop of Trollope was just the thing. I would love to put the two novels in a blender and see what happens if Jane Cleveland were to meet Eugene Eyestones. Would she try to fix him up with Prudence Bates. Oh, no doubt. Or would he mesmerize her with a lecture on the love lives of 17th century poets? And an amusing speculation on church mores as reflected in the variations of church decor from lo Anglican to hi Romish? Where's my blender!

What were you in your former lives?
N/B

I'm pretty sure I lived in the sea, glowed in the dark, and became very irritable when everyone else started writing about how cool it was to be an amphibian. I don't think I've ever been human, or so my wife claims.

thought so my precioussssssssssss!~!
N/B

I ♥ed your first post. Consider me a fan and your thread starred :)

N/B: By golly, I was a ringer for that Golem guy!
girlunderglass: Just your name gives me butterflies.

Congratulations on your hot review of Jane and Prudence.

Thanks L. I feel so much calmer reading Pym than Ayn.

I read Twilight this weekend, er, kinda, sorta, a little, well...I rented the DVD. OK??? But, I ended up with a crush on Bella, so does it really matter what media got me there? Big boat? Little boat? It's all AUM once you're across the river.

I finished Laura Warholic yesterday. I still haven't sorted through my thoughts about the novel, except to say that it's easily misunderstood, misrepresented, or misused. I am not familiar enough with Parsifal, for example, to say with certainty that Laura represents Kundry, Eyestones Parsifal, or the Laura's ex-husband Klingsor. However, that theme helps explain some of the demonic rages that are voiced by the cast of characters that inhabit the novel.

It was interesting, and far calmer, by way of comparison, to watch the film Elegy this evening. The story was adapted from a Phillip Roth novel. The film concerns the an affair between an older professor and his student. The academic's fears prevent him from connecting with his student, who sincerely enters into the affair. But life intervenes, both their perspectives change, and they reconnect on a deeper level.

All three of Theroux's novels share a similar theme and initial set-up. An older, hyper-intellectual male connects on some level - as a lover, a fuck buddy, or merely as an acquaintance - with a lesser educated, more instinctual female. Yet, in Theroux's novels, the connection always fails miserably and ends with a tragedy.

A lot to ponder. Theroux is a philosopher, a religious seeker, and an essayist disguised as a novelist. He has his teeth, like a pit bull, in the apple of temptation of original sin and will not let go. And so he hangs in the Garden, from the Tree of Life, shaking his head, and growling.

TWELVE: I'm on page 54 of The Ladies of Lyndon by Margaret Kennedy. I don't need to read any further to recommend it. Two very curious, very British families, one with children from two marriages, come together through marriage. Droll, and a bit mysterious too.

Have you read Troy Chimneys (also by Margaret Kennedy)? It's the only one of hers I've read, and I heartily recommend it, especially since you appear to like another of her books.

Thanks Christiguc, I will keep that title in mind. I'm on page 133 now The LOL (:D lol), and really impressed by the clarity and individuality of the characters, as well as the story telling. In reading the introduction, I see that Kennedy was a well received playwright. It shows in that her characters spring to life, and each person's dialogue is nuanced to reflect his or her personality. In fact, she is a very skilled writer in many ways - her descriptions, humor, presentation of ideas. Impressive.

THIRTEEN: Georges Rodenbach's Bruges-La-Morte was a swift read. Barely 100 pages. The translation was readable, but I could sense it was better in French. The story is fundamental, a grieving obsessive husband falls for a look alike for his dead wife. The physical appearance of city of Bruges has a role in developing the essential moodiness of the tale, while the morality of the community catalyzes it. I think, with the right director, it would be an outstanding film because visual imagery, and a sound track, could really enhance the emotionality and depth of feeling experienced by the husband.

FOURTEEN: Started Molly Keane's Full House. The characters are all a bit tense, possibly because a son, James, has just returned home from treatment for a "nervous breakdown". An atmosphere a bit like the recent film Rachael's Wedding, only 80 years or so earlier. so far. so good (80 pages)

FIFTEEN: Full House was excellent. I'm keen on Keane. Started Devoted Ladies yesterday.

Isn't she wonderful? Funny, in an almost-mean way. My favorite of hers is Two Days in Aragon, followed by Time After Time. But Devoted Ladies is one I don't have, so I look forward to hearing your opinion!

One observation I've made, having only read fifty pages, is that she, interestingly appears to voice some of her own objectives as a fiction writer through the character Sylvester, who is also a writer. One statement Sylvester makes is that an author should not appear to favor the character the author truly prefers. That seems true of Full House, where nobody seems to be the author's pet.

That is pretty interesting. I never thought about that before.
--BJ

Devoted Ladies was excellent, melodramatic, and perfect. I like the way Keane connects a cast of characters, sprinkles on the poetry, and injects a bit of meanness. It's like Thanksgiving dinner all over again.

I am reading Kate O'Brien's Without My Cloak and am about a third of the way through. It's a good read. A straightforward Victorian era saga of the large family of a self-made Irish millionaire. The siblings are all quite different, and interact in ways which reflect the conflicts imposed on them by the prevailing mores of a small city. It's a big wide screen portrait but O'Brien keeps the various personalities separate, clear, and interesting. It's a bit like roaming through a big old three story Victorian house - with servant's stairways, etc, and hearing the walls talk.

>23 Ganeshaka:: You have a sprinkling of poetry with your Thanksgiving dinner? Lucky...

>25 wunderkind: Lucky? Maybe, but consider the poem: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/129840/sylvia_plaths_cut.html

Finished Without My Cloak. The last third of the novel was quite fun.

I've been busy moving lock, stock, and barrel across the continent, suffering a heart attack and a triple bypass, and just plain having FUN. Alas, I've neglected my list! BUT, I have never stopped reading, except for two days in intensive care. What a bore.

I think I should catch up with
#18? Weather in the Streets by Rosamund Lehmann.
#19 A Rumor of Heaven by Beatrix Lehmann
#20 A Few Selected Exits by Gwyn Thomas
#21 Beam Ends by good old Errol Flynn
#22 The Strange Case of Edward Gorey by that strange case, Alexander Theroux
#23 The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes by Marcel Theroux which I reviewed and
#24 Far North by Marcel Theroux which I haven't yet got round to reviewing but which is an excellent post apocalyptic tale much better than
#25 The Road by Cormac McCarthy which sucked (Jack London's The Road is more fun)
#26 Drood by Dan Simmons who should be sued by Dickens and Collins may they rest in peace or at least stop spinning
#27 2666 by Roberto Bolano in which the title, I believe, stands for the number of Mexican teenage girls killed hourly in El Paso
#28 I think therefore who am I by Peter Weissman who will have to answer to Descartes some day for his sins
#29 The Blue Hour by Lilian Pizzichini which is all and everything you need to know about Jean Rhys
#30 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, zzzzzzzzzzzz,
#31 Redburn by Herman Melville, ship ahoy!
#32 The Abbess of Crewe and #33 The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark, the writer of slender books
#33 Miss Misery: A Novel by Andy Greenwald...a novel or a blog's doppelganger...you decide
#34 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson...pure summer fun
#35 I'm Only One Man! by the one and only Regis Philbin...my guilty pleasure
#36 Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of France Queen of England by Ralph Turner...what a broad! (as Frank Sinatra would have put it)((and if The Chairman of The Board was around back then she would have married him too))
#37 The Gothic War by T.C. Jacobsen or why Belisarius was seriously THE dude
#38 The Comedians by Graham Greene...was Poppa Doc bad voodoo or what?
#39 Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman...the land of 'She's who must be obeyed
#40 Over Prairie Trails by Frederick Philip Grove which I read, aptly, while traveling down the Alcan highway
#41 Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards ....a collection of stories a bit like Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters if JD Salinger had thrown himself under a train
#42 Wheeling Island: A Photgraphic History by Robert Schramm because that's where I am, ma'am
#43 and #44 Amphigorey and Amphigorey Too by Edward Gorey...must reads, must sees, just plain musty and seemingly Victorian but not
#45 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes ...revisiting a golden oldie to preview my senescence

#46 Silent Close No.6 by Monika Maron a seething look back at East Germany

Well, it's good to have you back, with all your pithy appraisals. Glad to see that life, despite its worst efforts, can't keep a book out of your hands for long.

#47 Symposium by Muriel Spark comes together in bits and pieces like an Altman movie
#48 The Finishing School by Muriel Spark in which green turns to gay
#49 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson very good but not as great as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
#50 War in Heaven by Charles Williams - more like yawn in Heaven, not my cup of blood

#51Underworld byDon DeLillo-I am truly having a ball,pun-OF COURSE-intended, getting lost in this book, getting sidetracked off to YouTube and Lenny Bruce (and even Frank Zappa as a sweet youth on the Steve Allen show playing the bicycle as a percussive intrument). This novel, along with The Great Gatsby and On the Road form, in my mind, a lyrical holy trinity linked by the madness, sadness, and Lochness monsterosity of that dying empire, my country tis of thee, America in that now late century - the Twentieth.

#52New Grub City by George Gissing I keep hearing the Apprentice theme as I read this book ("money, money,money,money..."). It was written over a century ago, but the bottom line in some marriages is still on Form 1040.

#53 Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem is a vacation in Manhattan, on somebody else's credit card. Very nice.

Your list(s) of reading material fascinate me and have sucked me into making a list. What a bunch of diverse books you do read. And I love your interesting and quirky remarks filtered in throughout your lists.
just commentin'
belva

#54 Monsieur by Lawrence Durrell - lux or lucubration? Lux!

#55 Livia, or Buried Alive by Lawrence Durrell - the eve of WWII, Paris, Provence, expatriates and diplomats, by the light of fireworks and a full moon, a September song.

#56 Constance and #57 Sebastian by Lawrence Durrell I am quite lost in the Avignon Quintet. Lost in a good way. And the novels are quite good, in a lost way. Lost: sort of like a bad news, good news joke. The bad news is that you're a heroin addict, the good news is that you're Chet Baker. By the way, in another universe, I'm Pope and directing a movie based on the Avignon Quintet, and Chet Baker is providing most of the soundtrack, with a few songs by Zarah Leander.

#58 Quinx or the Ripper's Tale by Lawrence Durrell there are so many quotes I wish I had written down while reading the Quintet...next time!

#59 Madeleine by Andre Gide A sad true story but hardly a surprising conclusion. Gide, gay, married his first cousin in hopes that his rarified love for her would overcome the negative physical polarity. It didn't. We know that now (thanks to Jerry Springer et al). They didn't then. Oops. To make matters worse, while never consummating the marriage, Gide somehow managed to father a child by another, and younger, woman? Is it any wonder that M. burned his letters to her?

#60 The Lady Who Loved Clean Bathrooms by J.P. Donleavy - I loved this one - Best Read of the Year - and in December, that means "very good"

#61 Poisoned Heart by Vera Ramone King - the name Ramone used to be a cover pseudonym used by Paul McCartney - I did not know that!

#62 All in Good Time: A Memoir by Jonathan Schwartz - I blitzed through this in one sitting, slowing for the WNEW-FM period, when I was a big fan of the station. Quite a life, JS - lullabyes by Judy Garland, drinks with Sinatra, a bed at Betty Ford's...and all that rock and roll, before it was "classic".

#63 The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne A book with an 1840 utopian farm community as a backdrop, but not really about that. Rather a study of the kinds of climate, rot, and over and under weeding that kill the seeds of love.

What a pithy and delightful description of The Blithedale Romance. Almost makes me want to revisit Hawthorne.

I know...I - almost - want to review it.

#64 Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars by Jean Markdale A balanced look at one of Languedoc's shadowy chapters. Marksdale manages to pull it off without resorting to the breathy glamorizing characteristic of, say, The History Channel, and all their Nazi Occult blah blah blah. Good background on dualism.

#65 A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss This fictionalized take on the South Sea trading bubble of the early 1700's is ambitious but just a bit tedious in the plot - too much spy vs counter spy - to be compelling. But elements of the book were nicely done, such as the atmosphere, the main character, his pal the playwright, and his cousin-in-law.

#66 The Continual Condition: Poems by Charles Bukowski Imagine if fast food restaurants were actually healthy places to eat, and you could eat as much as you want and still lose weight, if you wanted. That's a Bukowski poem: goes down easy, tasty-tasty, and you know what...50% of your daily requirement of Insight!

#67 The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar an outstanding work, an imagined life of a 16th century physician, alchemist, philosopher, colored in the sepia tones of gnosticism, and so, not a holly, jolly christmas read but sadly beautiful, like a good death.

#68 The Gnostics by Jacques Lacarriere all along I've been a Gnostic...all these years...who knew? (Robert Heinlein maybe - "Stranger in a Strange Land"

#69 In Such Hard Times Wei Ying-wu

As a former lifetime state employee I "got" this poem

"Night Duty at the Department of State"
The River of Stars is pointing toward fall
South Palace is getting cold early
the jade waterclock is too dim to see
the cloud tower is even darker
the flowered lanterns are finally lit
the fragrance of night floats in
considering my embarrassing past
I'm ashamed to be following a civil servants path

I think with a little opium, the right tea, and chimes...this book would survive the enormous voyage across time and the Pacific. But for me it didn't quite. Imagine the reverse: Emily Dickinson translated into Chinese...would sound like ...the buzzing of a goblin bee?

#70 Growth of The Soil by Knut Hamsun - if you like playing The Sims, I think you'll appreciate this book.

#71 The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom by Timothy Freke Freke's going to Hell for what he says in this book. I hope to meet him there, and hang out.

#72-75 at least...I think I read the equivalent of 75 books this year, for there are many I picked up, read a few chapters, and put aside. Next year, I hope to read another 75. I think 100 is probably beyond my capacity, unless I pad the list with some Dr. Seuss, and revisit the Bobbsey Twins. Happy New Year, y'uns!