Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine

The loss of irreplaceable books has recently been on my mind. 

While visiting the fair for Artbooks in Ghent, I was attracted by a stand with slim books where they sold transcripts of books learned by heart and remembered by readers. These works were the results of the Art project "time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine" by Mette Edvardsen, who, inspired by the characters of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, enthused participants to become living books.

From a Homer writing down his epics 2700 years ago to avoid forgetting, to people learning whole books by heart to remember them even if books are destroyed, the circle has come to a full close.

To become a "living book" could be a final chapter in Valéry Larbaud's tongue in his cheek portrait of a passionate reader. 

Which book would you learn by heart ?

Reading Oscars 2021

 

Fiction

I Kicked off the reading year 2021 with Ray Bradbury's Martian chronicles. I liked the novel and I wrote a review.I followed it up enthusiastically with "The illustrated Man", another Bradbury, but gave up after two chapters.

 I looked for something else.

 A few years ago, a handful of Belgian journalist assembled the "Flemish canon", a list of 50 must-reads in the Dutch language.

From that list, I choose the one most recently written: Hugo Claus' "The sorrow of Belgium". I read it front to back in one long reading rush; I was captivated by this wartime story . Claus' was Belgium's most likely candidate for a Nobel Price, but he passed away a decade ago. Brilliantly written, thoughtful, intelligent.

With that positive experience, I next opened Harry Mulisch's "The invention of Heaven". Although it is also very well written and reads easily, I abandoned the thick volume half way. I picked it up a few days ago, started reading again and expect to finish it before the end of the year. Intriguing.

 A book, I did finish was "Paradise" by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah. I don't know yet what to make of it, but I have a soft spot for Tanzania and the East African coast so it brought back a few memories.

 The winner I choose for this year fiction reads : Claus' "The sorrow of Belgium"

Non Fiction

Parallel with the fall of Kabul ( but not intentionally ) I read "Alexandria" by Edmund Richardson . It is a very interesting book about a country, people and a chunk of history that does not get too much attention normally. A reviewed it on my blog. I find reviewing nowadays difficult. My attention tends to wander.

I followed that reading with a book containing a collection of articles from musical author Alex Ross :"Listen to this". I am a huge fan of Alex Ross, but this novel is not as good as his "The rest is noise" and the "Wagner" - book, that are both, as far as I am concerned, genuine masterworks.

Then I immersed myself in Homer and the Odyssey for a couple of weeks.

A review on Daniel Mendelsohn' s " An Odyssey" in the Octavian report ( why to read the classics? ) directed me not only to Mendelsohn's book, but also to the most important text-books he consulted for his personal take on Homer's work. So I read:

- Odysseus : a life by Charles Rowan Bey Brillant!

- Homeric moments : clues to delight in reading the Odyssey and the Iliad by Eva T. H. Brann. Fantastic !

- The world of Odysseus by I. Finley. I had this classic already in my library. Interesting

- Disguise and recognition in the Odyssey by Sheila Murnaghan I did not read. It is too expensive to purchase (even on the second hand book market).

I topped up this Homeric readings with "Hearing Homer's song : the brief life and big idea of Milman Parry" by Robert Kanigel. The book gives a good idea about how the Iliad and the Odyssey were created and how Milman Parry got the inspiration for his theory.

As a reading coda, I finished this Homeric streak with Mendelsohn's "Three rings : a tale of exile, narrative, and fate", a kind of spin-off, musing or footnote to the writing of his very personal Odyssey book. It is interesting in itself because it dwells on the Homeric ring composition, Auerbach's Mimesis, François Fénelon and " W.G. Sebald.

Very entertaining and instructive was the book by Spanish Irene Vallejo "Papyrus, the invention of books in the ancient world". It seems it has not yet been translated in English. It is a pity for it is ( at least for Bookish people ) an enjoyable read.

Finally, my nightstand book was "Island dreams, mapping an obsession" by Francis Gavin, an easy enjoyable read of which only fragments linger in my memory after a good night sleep.

The winner I choose for this year non-fiction reads : Homeric moments : clues to delight in reading the Odyssey and the Iliad by Eva T. H. Brann.

Other

To complete my reading report I should add that I left a few books half read : "If this is a man" by Primo Levi, "The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great": by Andrew Michael Chugg, "The dawn of everything : a new history of humanity" by David Graeber, "The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas Machado de Assis ", very much hyped by social networks.

And then finally there was the usual dabbling and rereading : the odd page of Moby Dick, Lacarrières's hagiographic lives of the Desert Saints, "The Pound Era" by genius Hugh Kenner

So in general not a bad year in reading. Especially taking into account a very challenging year, both professionally and privately.

Reading Oscars 2020

For my 2020 reading I managed only 22 books.

 

non - fiction

 

The weirdest People in the World by Joseph Henrich. 

Interesting book with topics on race differences, education, social strata. Interesting stuff but balancing on the edge of what the right - thinking citizen of modern society will accept. Interesting but like always with these subjects: Controversial.

 

Wagnerism: How a Composer Shaped the Modern World by Alex Ross. 

The impact of Wagner on every cultural aspect of the late 19th and early 20th century is impressive and not widely known. That is until one reads Ross. Another brilliant book by this music critic.

 

Trieste by Jan Morris

It is about Trieste...it has a dreamy feeling and it is about nowhere.

 

Signatures: Literary encounters of a lifetime by David Pryce-Jones. A collection of very entertaining reminiscences of the bibliophile who met them all: Bowles, Auden, Huxley

 

A short walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. 

Funniest book of the year, hugely entertaining! It deserves a reread and a review.

 

The decline of the novel by Joseph Bottum. 

Can’t remember what it was about…

 

How to read water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea by Tristan Gooley. 

The book describes exactly what is said in the title. Occasionally very interesting stuff for sailors and walkers.

 

A.N. Wilson: Dante in Love. Fascinating book about the world in which Dante wrote his comedy. Good enough to start an immediate rereading.

 

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. 

Travel lit. from the seventies. Not bad, but not wildly exciting either. Again, Chatwin was right. Tortuga is Matthiessen’s better book.

 

WINNER: ERIC NEWBY with his Afghan travelogue

 

fiction

 

La gloire de mon père by Marcel Pagnol. 

A fine read that triggered remembrances of things past: my adolescent years in a French collège.

 

Hav and lettres fom Hav by Jan Morris. 

A travel guide for an unexistent city. Not bad but Jan Morris presence in the book is a bit too much.

 

La neige était sale by George Simenon. 

Very believable naturalistic written "fait-divers” against a second war back-ground. Impressive tight writing and a scisseled dark atmosphere.

 

Silk by Alessandro Baricco. 

A dreamy story of travels to the far East and a mysterious women.

 

Gabriele, girofle et canelle by Jorge Amado. 

A Love story playing out in the city of Bahia. Ah the voluptuous “Brésiliennes".

 

WINNER? No real favorite. No price discerned this year.

 

Théater

 

Topaz by Marcel Pagnol. 

From Rags to Riches by scheming and dealing. Life as it is. At may be a comedy, but it describes the things like they bloody well are.

 

Knock ou le triomphe de la médecine by Jules Romains. 

Funny modern take on the money - making business of being a doctor.

 

Both books are good reads!

 

WINNER? A tie between Pagnol and Romains

 

Poetry

 

Cathay: A critical edition by Ezra Pound. Interesting book if and only if you are interested in Pound’s writing method and techniques. So, only for the interested academician and the amateur delecting in the eclectic.

 

unfinished

 

Marcel Proust, a biography by George Painter. 

Very good bio of Proust. Enjoyed every page of it. Why did I stop reading?

 

Le Port des brumes by George Simenon. 

Again, the genius of Simenon in sketching in a few words tons of atmosphere and drama. Again, why did I stop reading?

 

Stalingrad by Vassily Grossman. Fighting in Stalingrad. 

Can you imagine that this book bored me to death? Stopped reading when the first bombs start falling.

 

The enchanted hour: The Miraculous Power of reading aloud in the age of distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon.

I ordered a wrong book.

 

WINNER: Best unfinished book: Marcel Proust by George Painter

 

OVERALL WINNER: A short walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. 

 

Genre fiction

Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. The main genres are crime, fantasy, romance, science fiction, western, inspirational, historical fiction and horror. Genre fiction is generally distinguished from literary fiction and mainly read for entertainment or to escape from reality. Literary Fiction on the contrary provides a means to better understand the reality of the world and to delivers an emotional response.

Words

One must draw everything one can from words, because it’s the one real treasure a true writer has. Big general ideas are in yesterday’s newspaper. If I like to take a word and turn it over to see its underside, shiny or dull or adorned with motley hues absent on its upperside, it’s not at all out of idle curiosity, one finds all sorts of curious things by studying the underside of a word – unexpected shadows of other words, harmonies between them, hidden beauties that suddenly reveal something beyond the word. Serious wordplay, as I have in mind, is neither a game of chance nor a mere embellishment of style. It’s a new verbal species that the marvelling author offers to the poor reader, who doesn’t want to look; to the good reader, who suddenly sees a completely new facet of an iridescent sentence'. ( Nabokov )

Reading Oscars 2019

The year is once again steaming towards Christmas and New Year eve, so it is time for a short moment of reflection and appraisal of our readings during the last twelve months. Let’s immediately call Rick on stage to hand him the prize for the:

Best book written by a self-exiled and banned (real and virtual) author 2019 

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch!!!

Rick’s inconveniences remind us that you can still be banned and socially punished in the 21th century for writing a poem. He is a true heir of Jonathan Swift and a faint but very real warning of the world described in Shalamov’s stories. 

(pumping a fist in the air) Free Rick!

Looking at my reading list, I can separate the books I finished and the books I left half-read. Let us look at the unfinished first:

Promising books but unfinished at this moment

Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov 

Forget about Bear Grylls. The ultimate survival guide is written by Poet and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov who relates in his stories what you need to do and not do to survive a forced-labor camp in the arctic region for more than a decade. Modern survival manuals miss the most important chapter: How to cope with the horrors inflicted by your fellow men?

Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner

I am a huge fan of both gentlemen and I thought that reading their correspondence would add to the pleasure. It did, but only in an inconclusive manner.

The game by Alessandro Baricco

The Italian philosopher Barrico is trying to explain his public what the ICT is doing to us. He is searching for patterns and explanations in our changing relation with the virtual world. To do that he uses a metaphor that complicates things even more. Never really clear in his explanations our friend Barrico

Last witnesses by Svetlana Alexijevitsj 

Hundreds of chapters of Russian adults remembering how as kids they experienced the loss of their parents and the horror of war. It is again and again the stories like the one my father (who lost his dad in the war) and my father in law ( who lost his mother in the war ) told me. How much can one take?

Curiosités esthétiques by Baudelaire Charles 

Art reviews written by that cursed poet Charles Baudelaire. The title says it all. An esthetic curiosity.

Les Demoiselles de Concarneau by Georges Simenon

I should have finished this one. Well written, awful crime, poignant atmosphere. Maybe it was because it was the third Simenon in a row that I failed to finish it.

La Méditerranée by Fernand Braudel 

Strongly recommended by Rick. The history of the Mediterranean explained by what happened in the mountains and the plains surrounding it. A book demanding full attention. Something I can rarely give nowadays. 

The Outlaw Ocean: Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina

Wanted to read that one, but it just happened that this book is at the bottom of the stack. 

L'Afrique Fantome by Michel Leiris 

Written by a famous sociologist when sociology was not famous yet. Africans and their ghosts. What can you say?

Trois tristes tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante 

Good one! Funny and well written, really like it. But again, the pages demand an attention I cannot summon for longer periods.

Gabriela, girofle et cannelle : by Jorge Amado

Not started, no idea what it is about.

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

All the books above have been shoved aside by this one. The three first chapters are brilliant and super interesting. If I’ll manage to keep on gobbling the words and hanging to its phrases, this is the book I likely will finish first.

The three nominees are:

Most likely to be finished soon

Trois tristes tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante 

Les Demoiselles de Concarneau by Georges Simenon

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

Winner 

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

Now let’s turn to the next category, the finished books, which is of course already an important sign of appreciation: 

The Finished books

Fiction

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan 

Surprisingly good book written by a 19th century Countess, novelist, journalist, literary critic, poet, playwright, translator, editor and professor. She looks like your preferred Grandma but she is in fact the Spanish Mother of Naturalism and belief me, she narrates the things like they bloody well are. She didn’t make any friends with this book. Not with the Spanish Aristocracy, nor with the clerics, nor with the politicians. A recommendation! 

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

Another great book. A visit to a Mexican Ghost town inhabited by rambling skeletons. Loved it. I even managed to write a short review about it. That means something nowadays.

Scoop: A Novel About Journalists by Evelyn Waugh

Funny, British. A journalistic excursion into Africa during a “Coup d’état”. 

Maybe the story is not even that exaggerated. Which makes it less funny than initially thought.

All the King's by Robert Penn Warren

Great book this one! The narration of a political henchman who loses his soul in the everyday business of Politics. Very well written, with looping describing sentences “à la Gogol” that go nowhere. Loved it, finished it in one go.

Lenz by Georg Büchner

Very short description of a man slipping into insanity. One of the first novels on such a topic.

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

A milestone! 700 pages of undiluted Rick Harsch, full of Americana and Anti-Americana. 

A prose protest song from the wildest living word – artist alive. A joyful heir of Joyce.

Knowing Him, makes it even more fun. Fcuking Keno!

La Veuve Couderc  and La maison du canal by G. Simenon

A nice discovery this year: my compatriot Georges Simenon. The House by the Canal is an interesting story but the writing is awful. It is of course one of the first of the many hundreds Simenon will write. The Widow Couderc is much better and the writer brilliantly describes a situation which is about to burst. Great writeri

The three nominees are

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan 

Winner (Rick has got already his prize): All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Non-fiction

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Can’t really remember what this book was about. A famous writer loving his library? Yes, that will do as a description.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

This book was recommended by a young women I met 2 years ago. “This book describes my Youth” she said. After reading Bukowski sobering narrative of growing up in solitude, with an abusive father, a weak mother and serious social issues, I hope she meant it figuratively. 

I am afraid she didn’t.

Faber & Faber: The Untold Story of a Great Publishing House by Toby Faber

Interesting self-adulation of a famous publishing house. Interesting because printing and selling books involves big risks and needs good business sense. Not for Romantics.

Homage to QWERTYUIOP by Anthony Burgess

Love Burgess. This is British wit as we love it. Intelligent, sharp, cultured. 

Les routages en course et en croisière by Jean-Yves Bernot

Computer aided navigation, Meteorology and Yacht race strategy by one of the most famous “routeurs” of sailing records. Love the books by Bernot for their sheer intelligence. The “Homo Ludens” at his best.

Winner 

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

Il donnait des baffes à la bonne

  « C'est exactement, l'histoire du chimpanzé de ma mère. Quand elle l'a acheté, il était maigre, il puait la misère, mais je n 'ai jamais vu un singe aussi affectueux. On lui a donné des noix de coco, on l'a gavé de bananes, il est devenu fort comme un Turc, il donnait des baffes à la bonne. Il a fallu appeler les pompiers... »

Topaz / Marcel Pagnol

The famous literary canon compiled by Pierre Boncenne and presented by Bernard Pivot, boasted to list the 2500 best books worth reading in a lifetime. 

In the last pages of “La Bibliothèque Idéale”, the Nobel prize winners were listed according to their nationality.  As the “Bibliothèque” was printed in 1988, the last winner mentioned was the 1987 laureate Joseph Brodsky. 

I was curious to know how many of the future Nobel prize winners Boncenne could predict and till what year his foresight stretched.

I selected all winners since 1988 and checked their names in the glossary with surprising results :

1988: Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt) listed in 1987 as one of the ten best writers from the Maghreb

1989: Camilo Cela (Spain) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Spain 

1990: Octavio Paz (Mexico) listed in 1987 as one of the ten best writers from Latin America 

1991: Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) missed !

1992: Derek Walcott (St Lucia) missed !

1993: Toni Morrison (USA) missed !

1994: Kenzaburo Oe (Japan) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Asia 

1995: Seamus Heaney (Ireland) missed !

1996: Wislawa Szymborska (Poland) missed !

1997: Dario Fo (Italy) missed !

1998: Jose Saramago (Portugal) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Portugal and Brasil 

1999: Gunther Grass (Germany) listed in 1987 as one of the twenty-five best writers from Germany 

2000: Gao Xingjian (China) missed!

2001: Vidiadhar Naipaul (India) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Asia 

2002: Imre Kertesz (Hungary) missed !

2003: John Coetzee (South Africa) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from England ( British Commenwealth ) 

2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria) missed !

2005: Harold Pinter (Britain) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers for theater. 

2006: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) missed !

2007: Doris Lessing (Britain) listed in 1987 as one of the twenty-five best writers from England 

2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (France) in 1987 listed as one of the fifty best writers from France

2009: Herta Muller (Germany) missed !

2010: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) in 1987 listed as one of the ten best writers from Latin America

2011: Tomas Transtroemer (Sweden) missed !

2012: Mo Yan (China) missed !

2013: Alice Munro (Canada) missed !

2014: Patrick Modiano (France) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from France 

2015: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) missed !

2016: Bob Dylan (USA) missed for obvious reason

2017: Kazuo Ishiguro (Britain) missed

2018: Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) missed !

2019: Peter Handke (Austria) missed !

This means that they predicted Modiano’s reputation 26 years in advance!

Most impressive is Mario Vargas Llosa’s record, of whom in 1987 it was already obvious that he was one of the greatest talents in the Spanish language but who received the price only 22 years later!

Language as a net.

Iris Murdoch’s idea of language as a net cast over the mind, constraining our thoughts according to how its knots and threads land – wrinkled in some places, straight in others. Every language is a different throw of the net. Language sieves and strains reality but never imprisons it. There are always holes for the real world to escape.

Summer reading 2019

Summer holiday preparation...

What to read on this 14 day tour of the east of the Mekong Delta? I'll take only two books with me: "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren and "Voices after Evelyn" by the great Rick Harsch.

I promised Rick a review; maybe I'll have some time to mold the drafts and reading notes into a semblance of a readable text. Now that I think about it, I might pack Dicken's "a tale of two cities" with my budgie-smugglers and butt-flossies. It's a long flight home.

Reading Oscar's 2018

I still live among books. My house and bedside are littered with half open books. Not a day passes without reading a dozen of pages. But something has changed. My purchasing of new books has virtually stopped. I do not find the time and envy anymore to write reviews. Most worrying of all, fiction can’t retain my attention as it did before. Of the 10 books of fiction I started this year, I have finished but two. The other 8 in the end did not manage to keep me interested.

Unfinished Fiction

And quiet flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokov ( Unfinished )

Half finished. Russian taiga exotism by the bucketfull but nowhere enough tension to keep me reading 

The fight for sergeant Grisja by Stephan Zweig ( Unfinished )

Some poor writing deceived me quite early in the book

A l’aveugle by Claudio Magris ( Unfinished )

Confusing. Must try again, Rick loves it

The famous bear invasion in Sicily by Dino Buzzati ( Unfinished )

I’ll try again when I have grand -children

Europe Central by William T Vollmann ( Unfinished )

Often interesting, clear authorial intentions but why soooooo long ?

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle ( Unfinished )

Has aged badly

The sea, the sea by iris Murdoch ( Unfinished )

Finished for three quarters but had a bore out

The Walk by Robert Walser ( Unfinished )

it is about walking

Winner of the unfinished fiction : Europe Central

Finished Fiction

Voices after Evelyn by Rick Harsch

Top of the world by Hans Ruesch

Both books have kept my attention till the last sentence. Ruesch’s narration of a crime and a manhunt on the ice in Greenland is both funny and entertaining.

Rick’s book is as intriguing as the Evelyn case. Still owe you a review

Winner of the finished fiction : Voices after Evelyn

Best Poetry

Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot

Best reread

The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa 

Brillant book. No problem to finish this one. A world bygone.

Non Fiction : No problems either to finish these books

My past and thoughts : Childhood, Youth and Exile by A.I. Gertsen 

Very nice recounting of the life of the rich in Russia in the early 19th century.

These are the stories that inspired Pushkin, Gogol and others to write their masterpieces

Lovely book

The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

Scrotum tightening. Terrible reading for enlightened people.

There are lessons to learn here. Civilzation has to be guarded and defended ...every day.

The Oracle: The lost secrets and hidden message of Ancient Delphi by William J Broad

Good book ! My guide when I returned to Delphi and the Corcyrian cave.

A guide to the good life : The ancient Art of stoic joy by William B. Irvine

Forget Zen and Budhism. The Western world has his own solutions to survive existential angst

A hands-on guide.

Who we are and how we got there : the ancient DNA revolution and the new science of the human past ( Unfinished because very difficult )

Mind blowing. The science that will explain exactly who you are and where you came from. Maybe not what you want to hear

The Ink trade : Selected Journalism 1961-1993 by Anthony Burgess

The writings of Ol’ Burgess are so yummy that I even managed to write a review. 

The only one this year ! ( Except for Rick’s Trieste book )

A history of Opera :The last four hundred years by Caroline Abbate

Opera is as fascinating as literature. A book to dip in after every aria.

Winner : The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

The Perfect bookshelf

The Perfect Bookshelf

I grew up in homes where books had always been very present, scattered over different rooms, on night tables, bookshelves and the occasional closet. It is therefore not surprising that from the moment I could read, I always kept volumes close at hand in the several apartments and houses I lived in. From my late twenties, I had enough books to fill 3 large Billy bookcases and they stood, gradually overfilling, proudly in the living room as a proud confirmation of my identity as a READER.

Then came the day that I bought a house and the bookcases were banned to a “library room” where the books disappeared as treasures in into a secret chamber. When that chamber could not take more books, another bookcase was installed, still not in the living room, but in the bedroom. Convenient as it was, I just had to reach out to grab a tome from a multitude of books that were offering themselves for early morning and late night reading, there still lingered a feeling of unfinished business. The books, patiently, still did not reclaim the central place of our house.

On the contrary, in my living room, there remained but a few books and the many books of which I was so proud of, remained hidden as if in shame. And the book stacks further growing and gradually overfilling the bedside library became an imminent danger, as they could topple over me at any time.

It was time to allow my books to rightly reclaim their position at the center of my life and in my house. The decision to exhibit again the jetsam and flotsam of more than 40 years of reading brought with it its own challenges. One was to find a bookcase that could take a few hundred books, fit in the living room and could be tailor fitted lengthwise and in the height. I found what I was looking for close to home in a bookcase built by the Belgian designer-decorator Alain Chenneaux. An intelligent system of narrow shelves organized in three different formats but limitless in size and heights.

The shallow depth, the neutral color and the infinite ways to rearrange the shelves, made it possible for the library to disappear behind the books. Exactly what I needed...

My books are back where they belong. 

Reading Oscars 2017

I am cutting down a bit on book purchases for lack of space. I had a traumatic experience in September when I was forced to move my bedside books for sanitary reasons to the library room downstairs. It was about 10 running meters of books that needed to be relocated. But I trust the judgement of others : I could not reach my bed anymore in a normal way and there was a permanent danger that the stack of hardcovers would topple upon my head during my sleep with fatal consequences. 😊

Nevertheless, I tackled a total of a about twenty books which makes 2017 a decent reading year. Reviewing however remains under par.

Best Novel in English

Charles Portis : True Grit. How not to like Mattie, that cocky and smart girl while she chases the murderer of her father. Refreshingly original. Who needs a reliable narrator if the unreliable are more fun?

Rick Harsch : Skulls of Istria 

Winner Rick Harsch : Skulls of Istria

Best Novel in Translation

Gunther Grass : The Tin Drum : The well-known story of the Polish boy who decides not to grow up. His tiny appearance makes him survive the second world war while all around him Horror has its way.

Bruno Schulz : The Street of Crocodiles. Beautifully chiseled and finely crafted sentences to recreate and remember the lost Jewish communities of East Europe. A prose to appreciate in tiny doses. A jewel of a book. For connoisseurs.

Tsjingiz Ajtmatov : Dzjamilia. The Love story that came out of Kirghiz Communist Russia. Unfinished I am ashamed to say although it is known as the most beautiful love story in the world.

Joseph Roth : Radetzky March : The story of the Trotta lineage. A brilliant chronicle of the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Surprising, impressive, emotional, beautiful. If not for the Moby, Radetzky March would have easily won.

Maria Vargas Llosa : "The War of the end of the world". One of the sole reads where I managed to scribble a semblance of a review. An important and intelligent book. One of those novels that explain the World. A must read.

Roberto Arlt : The Seven madmen. A whirlwind of anarchist thoughts of all kinds. Here too I was enthused to pen down a few of my impressions after the reading. A prophetic book.

Winner Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

Best Poetry

I have dabbled in Ezra Pound’s Cantos throughout the year but the one poem that I like most was Derek Walcott’s “Greatest reader in the world” which was recommended by TC Murr. I bought Walcott’s anthology and will be reading more of it

Winner : Derek Walcott

Best Non-Fiction

Hans Fallada : Alone in Berlin. After losing their only son in the war, an old German couple resists Hitler and his cronies in their own awkward way. A masterful recreation of the suffocating paranoid atmosphere of Berlin in 1943. And a nail-biting story on top of that. While the writing of the book contains traces of propaganda, it is a sure recommendation.

Yuval Noah Harari : Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. A modern and surprising take of human evolution told by a young vegan historicist. Interesting how insights in our history are changing. Did we exterminate the Neanderthals? Well no, we screwed them !

Nathaniel Philbrick : Why Read Moby-Dick? A quick read to double check if I did not miss anything while re-reading Moby Dick. I didn’t. Not really worth the purchase but what the heck, Philbrick gave us “In the heart of the Sea”, for which we haven’t thanked him enough.

Daniel Swift : The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound. An absolute brilliant reconstruction of Ezra Pound’s days in the looney house. What makes an Artist, what makes a fraud? Who is a fool, who is a genius? A book about the famous “sacred monster”, I wished I had written myself. Enjoyed this well written, well investigated book very much. It deserves a review!

J. Liebling : Between meals; an appetite for Paris. Follow an epicurist in his wanderings from one Paris restaurant to another in a time when cholesterol did not even exist. It reminds one of the villain in Umberto Eco’s Prague Cemetery. A delicious read !

Rüdiger Safranski : Goethe. Either Goethe was a boring fad or Safranski succeeded to write the most boring, impassionate relation of the great literary figure. Or maybe it is just me…

Robert Trumbull : The Raft. A straightforward survival story of three aviators who must ditch their plane in the Pacific during the battle of Midway. Although it is a simple book, the experience of the men served as a catalyst for new insights in survival and navigational techniques for the open sea. For me, a topic of constant interest.

Harold Gatty : The raft book; lore of the sea and sky. The survival manual that was issued by the American Navy after the study of the ordeal described above in “the raft”. A beautiful little book on top of that. For me it was just a must have.

Winner : Daniel Swift : The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound

Best Reread

Hugh Kenner : The Pound Era. A magical book. Everything you wanted to know about Modernism, explained in a way as to experience it oneself. I’ll keep re-reading and studying its chapters. Crammed with information from the beginning till the end. Bought the book a second time. Over-reading had damaged my first copy.

Herman Melville : Moby Dick. Awesome. Unbeatable. The one secular book that can replace the Bible as the “Good Book”. A story, humankind will read forever.

Overal Winner : Herman Melville : Moby Dick