tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6039935637300129176..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Books I might readAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-22309020869504186042018-08-16T22:15:31.961-05:002018-08-16T22:15:31.961-05:00Semi-irregular posting. An actual book, today.
S...Semi-irregular posting. An actual book, today.<br /><br />Since I always have multiple books going, I never really face the "next" question. It is all a big rolling mass of text.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-62292366238776231102018-08-16T16:55:12.434-05:002018-08-16T16:55:12.434-05:00So good to have you back to regular posting! So go...So good to have you back to regular posting! So good that you were away living France for most of the year!<br /><br />I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I am 20 pages from the end of <i>Middlemarch</i>, which is going to require something <i>really, really good</i> to follow. Or something really negligible. <br /><br />All of the above suggestions are tempting. <br /><br />seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51250892595294398322018-08-05T21:20:47.284-05:002018-08-05T21:20:47.284-05:00Huh, Yiddish writing but also fluent in French. N...Huh, Yiddish writing but also fluent in French. Not so common, I don't think.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-24754958913217970712018-08-05T21:14:14.652-05:002018-08-05T21:14:14.652-05:00Last month I read four short stories by Blume Lemp...Last month I read four short stories by Blume Lempel, translated from Yiddish. All are set in Paris where she lived from 1929 to 1939 before luckily moving to New York City. One story has a magnetic title, “A Yiddish Poet in Paris”. Lempel loved Paris, she lived on Long Island for forty plus years and never lost her fluency in French. She published in NYC yiddish publications, writing in that language to preserve her heritage.<br /><br />Mel uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08714473754458914681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-76765858713812708142018-08-03T14:50:48.245-05:002018-08-03T14:50:48.245-05:00Dickens goes with every proposal, I feel. There i...Dickens goes with every proposal, I feel. There is something in Dickens to go with everything. An immense writer.<br /><br />I read the last two volumes of Kipling's short stories in France. The stories where he is dealing with his son's death in the war - wrenching. Beautiful, but rough.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-52646939328416833262018-08-03T13:13:50.799-05:002018-08-03T13:13:50.799-05:00Alas, my newly chosen project — Charles Dickens — ...Alas, my newly chosen project — Charles Dickens — seems not to fit with your floated proposal. Still, I would like to find room for Stevenson or Kipling. Well, perhaps. RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-23897907175579338492018-08-03T10:54:14.670-05:002018-08-03T10:54:14.670-05:00Oh, and if you have not tried him, maybe read Mich...Oh, and if you have not tried him, maybe read Michael Farris Smith, a true modern day Faulknerian or Southern Gothicist or whatever. A living example of the species.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-1511912997838080292018-08-03T10:52:40.278-05:002018-08-03T10:52:40.278-05:00Kafka, Southern Gothic, T. E. Lawrence - outstandi...Kafka, Southern Gothic, T. E. Lawrence - outstanding. I want to get back to Faulkner sometime, too. A giant, and I've barely read him for twenty-five years.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-17290319557844888582018-08-03T10:50:16.525-05:002018-08-03T10:50:16.525-05:00That NYRB sale just about took over my Twitter for...That NYRB sale just about took over my Twitter for a while.<br /><br />I may write a little bit on how specific French novels were useful for specific vocabulary. Now I am learning about birds! Or whatever. Truly useful.<br /><br />Semprun's memoir sounds quite interesting, thanks for the pointer.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-27697825591846904272018-08-03T10:45:43.399-05:002018-08-03T10:45:43.399-05:00Those all sound like fantastic choices. I've ...Those all sound like fantastic choices. I've just recently finished Kafka's fiction and am ready to start over... but it'll have to wait. Right now I'm in a bit of a Southern Gothic phase, with some late 20th century fiction thrown in. Till distracted, I *was* in the 1910s/20s and need to get back to that timeframe soon with a T. E. Lawrence biography and others.Marian Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14115916138435761469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-35921549388739443292018-08-03T09:58:48.847-05:002018-08-03T09:58:48.847-05:00Btw, Semprun has a memoir of learning French (as a...Btw, Semprun has a memoir of learning French (as a teenage refugee from Franco) and falling in love with French literature. It's called "Adieu, vive clarté."mayareadsbookshttp://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-66097256387220970492018-08-03T09:56:47.704-05:002018-08-03T09:56:47.704-05:00It's been more like Maya Doesn't Read Book...It's been more like Maya Doesn't Read Books lately, but I'm hoping to get back on track. The NYRB Classics 50% off sale was very helpful in acquiring new reading material--I got Tsvetaeva's diaries, Shalamov's Kolyma Stories, and a couple of Chinese and Taiwanese books (Eileen Chang's Naked Earth looks amazing, but I haven't tried it yet).<br /><br />Trying to get through Cesare Pavese's The Moon and the Bonfires in Italian--it's beautifully written and I'm learning a bunch of agricultural/outdoor words but it's a bit slow, deliberately so, which makes it easy to put down and forget.<br /><br />It would also be nice to get my Spanish back on track (haven't studied it seriously in years) with the eventual goal of reading La Regenta. Even though I studied Spanish longer and better than French, it's somehow harder to read. Jorge Semprun, who wrote in both, suggests that's because of the extravagant vocab used in Spanish, or something like that.mayareadsbookshttp://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-12355981934845348522018-08-02T23:35:31.551-05:002018-08-02T23:35:31.551-05:00Doug, thanks. Your recent Alphonse Allais books t...Doug, thanks. Your recent Alphonse Allais books tempt me to break my rule of reading in French. Your notes alone are worth a lot. Plus the reading level blah blah blah. We'll see. If the sales of the last couple were one copy lower than you expected, it's because I was in France.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-72898761939075995082018-08-02T23:02:32.659-05:002018-08-02T23:02:32.659-05:00I'm glad to see you're still blogging. I&#...I'm glad to see you're still blogging. I've been following your French adventures: bravo!<br /><br />I'm currently working my way slowly through the complete works of Charles Cros and the complete poetry of Yeats. (Full disclosure: I'm translating Cros's monologues). Those should take me awhile. On the stack are Borges's lectures on English lit, the plays of Raymond Roussel, and some of the poetry of Laurent Tailhade. I'm also trying to get my Italian back up to speed with some Giordano Bruno. All of that is very delicious, but a lot of work... Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-36140050289006731362018-08-02T22:39:28.645-05:002018-08-02T22:39:28.645-05:00One of my long-term goals is to get my French to t...One of my long-term goals is to get my French to the level where I can read <i>Les Tragiques</i>. Funny you mention it.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-22187133414858021632018-08-02T19:20:57.958-05:002018-08-02T19:20:57.958-05:00The closest sound to Shakespeare was probably the ...The closest sound to Shakespeare was probably the Jugement section of d'aubigne's les tragiques.Mark Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11919863351315361449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-90076514730413111162018-08-02T12:16:10.578-05:002018-08-02T12:16:10.578-05:00That wasn't about you. Paris is like New York...That wasn't about you. Paris is like New York. Whatever's fastest. Keep the line moving! In Lyon, and elsewhere, we were all more likely to stay in French. Talk about humbling.<br /><br />Euripides, Shakespeare. Way better than whatever I will read.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-10827907719393452682018-08-02T11:39:24.146-05:002018-08-02T11:39:24.146-05:00I'm reading War and Peace again. I'd forgo...I'm reading <i>War and Peace</i> again. I'd forgotten how good it is; I'd forgotten how bad it is. A good time. I'm also reading Iris Murdoch. Future plans include more poetry and books about poetry, all of Chekhov again, the Shakespeare "history" plays I haven't read, and, um, whatever else. More Japanese novels. More novels translated from Spanish and Portuguese. That second volume of Euripides I never got to three years ago. Same old stuff, really. Oh, yes: a couple of weeks ago I stumbled onto a copy of <i>In Einem Andern Land</i>, which is <i>A Farewell to Arms</i> in German. I'll be reading that soon.<br /><br />Welcome back, that's what I mean to say. When I was in France, I read Lawrence and Chekhov. I can read almost nothing in French. At a bakery in Montmartre, I was begged to place my order in English. A humbling experience.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86893148938404332082018-08-02T09:19:24.854-05:002018-08-02T09:19:24.854-05:00Eliot was immersed in French poetry.
I hope to ...Eliot was immersed in French poetry. <br /><br />I hope to revisit Waugh now. I have a lot more context. He is not so far off from what is going on around him, not as much as I had thought.<br /><br />Yes, the weirder fringe, the weirder fringe. Yes, yes, yes.<br /><br />A lot of good stuff there mentioned here. Everyone should be busy.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-45980915776299117042018-08-02T04:38:43.052-05:002018-08-02T04:38:43.052-05:00In the coming months, I'll be reading old poet...In the coming months, I'll be reading old poets, exploring "experimental" prose from Laurence Sterne on, and seeking out the weirder fringes of science fiction and fantasy. I will also be reading Wuthering Expectations, it seems! I'm so glad you're blogging about books about.Robert Mintohttp://www.essayingtobe.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-34186673100348757342018-08-02T04:22:20.650-05:002018-08-02T04:22:20.650-05:00That list of poets reminded me of the anthology I ...That list of poets reminded me of the anthology I studied as a set text at A Level in England many years ago (that's the pre-university level, similar I presume to high school in the US): Leconte de Lisle, Lamartine, Baudelaire, Verlaine, etc. Lines still linger in my head. Studying Eliot for Eng Lit at the same time made much more sense as a result. Just finished the fifth Barsetshire novel, followed by Lydie Salvayre's Cry, Mother Spain while in Mallorca, which gets a lot of mentions in the novel/memoir. More Trollope to come, plus maybe Waugh, Vile Bodies as a freshenerSimonhttp://tredynasdays.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-45523688828069007362018-08-02T00:14:18.547-05:002018-08-02T00:14:18.547-05:00Crazy blog software. Good news, anyways.
Strange...Crazy blog software. Good news, anyways.<br /><br />Strangest thing you have ever read - now that piques the interest. Welty is wonderful. Szentkuthy sounds wonderful. Martin du Gard still has readers in France, which almost surprised me.<br /><br />Great stuff, generally.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-88277573076189962112018-08-02T00:04:41.157-05:002018-08-02T00:04:41.157-05:00All right! I can post comments again!All right! I can post comments again!Dwighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13688525659034403580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-34784898895675461072018-08-01T23:25:24.216-05:002018-08-01T23:25:24.216-05:00I'll continue reading a lot more nonfiction, a...I'll continue reading a lot more nonfiction, and hopefully continue to post on them and any of the following I get to. <br />For fiction: I just finished Ernst Junger's "On the Marble Cliffs," possibly the strangest thing I have ever read. And that's saying a lot. (Plan on posting on it soon.) A few of the books queued up are beefy: "The Cypresses Believe in God" by Jose Maria Gironella, for my French connection I want to tackle "The Thibaults" by Roger Martin du Gard (I quite liked "Jean Barois"), more Szentkuthy, and I've been meaning to read more Galdos. Revisiting books...I'm thinking some southern U.S. authors, particularly Eudora Welty. As you know, plans change, but I find it helpful to have a flexible framework.Dwighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13688525659034403580noreply@blogger.com