Paging Phil Niekro

Work threw me a knuckleball this week, but hopefully I'll be back to semi-regular posting in the next few days (offset by some travel days). So expect some posts on The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati and the screen adaptation The Desert of the Tartars (both highly recommended). I still have some ways to go on La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas (wow...great, and keeps getting better) and I'm just getting started on Voyage to Kazohinia by Sándor Szathmári. Yeah, I'm sure all of these books are near the top of everyone's reading lists...

I'm sorry I was a party to this

Title page to Clerks / Chasing Amy: Two Screenplays: by Kevin Smith

Robin,
See? Now this sucks. You get this cool gift, right. And that's okay. But now you know Dwight's going to hold it over your head forever. Maybe even extort sex from you as well (if he's not a relative...hell, maybe even if he is a relative).

I'm sorry I was a party to this.

[signature] Kevin Smith

A short break

I'll be taking a few days off as my wife and I celebrate our anniversary. Since we'll be in the area where we held the wedding, I'll add a link to my post on The Art of Eating Well.

New addition

Meet Ginger, the newest addition to our family. It's hard to get her to stay still at the moment. The boys are excited and she's doing well in her new house. So far--she's been here less than a day.

She will probably appear on Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer TV show later this year in a segment on adoptable, well-behaved dogs about to be put down at the Los Angeles pound and was part of his "pack" for a while. Many thanks to Second Chance at Love Humane Society in Templeton, California for making the placement with us so easy and matching us with the perfect dog for our family.

Avoiding lies and damned lies

What to do when you’re sick and you can’t concentrate enough to read or post? The other day my wife made some comment about stats on her business website so I poked around on pageviews on this blog. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. It’s easy to tell what is being covered in some schools.

Make of these stats what you will. This blog is simply fleshed out thoughts on the notes I take while reading books, not meant to be anything fancy—rely on anything I post at your own peril. I’m toying with the idea of moving to my own domain in order to have more control, but with everything else going on at home and work that will have to wait.

Far and away the most visited are the posts on Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, receiving over 27,000 pageviews. The Histories by Herodotus is a distant second with almost 13,000. While the Iliad has over 7,000 pageviews, half of the visits are just on the Books 17 – 20 post. The Odyssey, in comparison, almost has 5,000.

Fiction has both expected and surprising stats. Kipling’s Kim has over 12,000 views and Eugene Onegin over 7,000. While Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has well over 4,000 pageviews, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas has over 5,500. Most surprising to me, making me very happy, was over 6,000 visits to the posts on Pio Baroja’s books. It’s also nice to see Isaac Babel being covered somewhere, since I wouldn’t expect to see over 5,000 visits related to his stories. Posts on Petersburg and Parade’s End each had over 3,000 pageivews.

Two nonfiction books I was glad to see visited: Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles has almost 6,000 pageviews while Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands is closing in on 5,000. In addition Virginia Woolf’s essays "Modern Fiction" and "How Should One Read a Book?” has almost 6,000 visits.

It’s clear that views have dropped with my recent emphasis on central- and eastern-European works as well as the many films I’ve posted on. I know they aren’t for everyone but I hope additional coverage on them helps expands their overall interest level. Now, on to Spanish Language Lit Month (see sidebar for links).

Never out of fashion

Almost immediately, I hit a snag. It is close to impossible to browse a serious library’s collection of porn and porn criticism without getting sucked into big, sexy historical theories. Within an hour of my visit to Harvard’s Widener Library, I was beginning to suspect that smut had been behind the rise of … everything.

- from The Paris Review blog

Posting will be light this week--I'm coming down with a case of the crud and we will be adding a (four-legged) member to the family. More on her later since she'll be on a TV show this year.

I'll leave you with The Paris Review blog's article on some librarian fantasies. Feel free to discuss among yourselves...

Well, that was different

Recovering from a fun weekend, not to mention a long day in the sun with over a hundred thousand of my closest friends. Credit goes to my wife for a great Father's Day present. Posting on Ferdydurke should continue tomorrow.

Success? And more...

Previously: The Doll by Bolesław Prus—if anyone knows how to get a copy of the 1968 movie Lalka directed by Wojciech Has, please let me know.

Success? I placed an interlibrary loan for a VHS copy I found...wish me luck. It may be a few months before it gets to me but I can be patient. Some times. I'm enjoying the book so much I also have his later book Pharaoh lined up, but I'll probably wait until the end of the year for that.

And I keep adding more I want to read...having planned to watch Ashes and Diamonds I'll probably add Jerzy Andrzejewski's book on which it was based. Not to mention my library just received Satantango by László Krasznahorkai. Once again my appetite is larger than my ability to digest...

There’s a seeker born every minute

A quick post on what I have planned for the upcoming months, with input always welcome on authors, etc. Also, I wanted to float a Fortunata and Jacinta read-along at the end of the post. Also, I can't decide on non-fiction books to listen to (several on my wish list but nothing appeals at the moment), so any recommendations are appreciated.

I have been reading some works by central and eastern European writers and I will be drawing that exclusive focus to a close after a few more books:

·         Job by Joseph Roth and the semi-related 1936 movie Sins of Man

·         The Doll by Bolesław Prus—if anyone knows how to get a copy of the 1968 movie Lalka directed by Wojciech Has, please let me know (I’m tempted to get the 5-disc 1978 Polish TV miniseries, even with no subtitles, but the price is a deterrent)

·         Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz and the 1973 movie The Hour-Glass Sanatorium directed by Wojciech Has (yeah, there’s a theme here)

·         Portraits of a Marriage by Sándor Márai

·         Stone Upon Stone, by Wieslaw Mysliwski

·         Behind the Lines: Bugulma and Other Tales by Jaroslav Hašek (preordered, scheduled for release in June)

·         Harlequin's Millions by Bohumil Hrabal (preordered, scheduled for release in September)

I may add another short book or two along the same lines (another book by Schulz happens to be in the local library) but I’m anxious to move on to other areas, especially returning to works of ancient Greece. I have been eyeing The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika for a while and I’m determined to start it after these books. While I’m tempted to revisit Xenophon’s Anabasis, that is lined up as an upcoming release in the Landmark series so I’ll probably wait for that version instead. I definitely plan on covering his Oeconomicus and a couple of Plato’s dialogues. I have also wanted to post on Werner Jaeger’s wonderful Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture but I’ll probably save that for the end of the year.

More standard western European fare should follow, with La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas and the massive The Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard mocking me from my bookcase. I’m uncertain of the timing of The Thibaults since I may be massive-booked-out already. I'm sure there's a technical term for that.

I joked about hosting a read-along of Benito Pérez Galdós’ Fortunata and Jacinta after I finished his Torquemada series but I think it would be a fun idea—is there enough interest in the book for an October event? 

If I get to everything in this list this year I’ll be a happy reader. Strike that…I’m a happy reader already.

Note: I'm receiving notice of comments but nothing is appearing. Having seen several of my comments spiked or not approved  at other websites I'm very sensitive to this situation. If your comment does not appear automatically I will manually add it 24 hours after I've received the notice--I do not delete comments unless they are blatantly spam.

Sometimes I have nothing...

...especially when dealing with the loss of a co-worker and friend. I'm traveling again this week so I'll take a short break from posting.

Feel free to leave a caption for the youngest and a friend he made yesterday.

This is no movie, this is real

I rarely post RIPs, but I feel compelled to do so with Peter Bergman's death...someone that helped me feel I was...well, different.

If you have not listened to Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, I encourage you...nay, I entreat you to do so.

For the record, I may be banned from chaperoning field trips from my kids’ school after the last trip--I tried to teach kindergarteners to respond to “Doesn’t Louise count?” with “Only to 10, Mudhead.”

Thank you Mr. Bergman and associates. One day my kids will understand the source of some of my quotes. Or not. In the meantime, I have fun making absolutely no sense to them.

The Great Gatsby book drive

If you're willing to part with your copy of The Great Gatsby, please consider sending it Mr. Brame's class in Memphis. They have been using the same copies of the book for the last four years and they could use additional and improved copies. More details can be found at Mr. Brame's Blog. Be a sport and help.

Childhood favorites

To commemorate HBO’s documentary Namath, I present my 4th grade class picture with me wearing his jersey. What the picture doesn’t reflect is that I was barefoot—the info board covers that detail. I refused to wear shoes to school until 5th grade (and I was lied to in order to get me to wear shoes at that point).

This was my third class picture wearing #12. My dad disliked Namath…or rather he disliked what he thought he represented. Starr…Unitas…those were his kind of QBs. Me, I liked Namath and Lamonica from this period (I was a huge football fan in my youth). Fortunately, other than passing comments on what he valued, my dad never put my choice of favorites down. Hopefully I’ll keep the same perspective with my kids.

View the pic and weep for the 60s and 70s. For my family--yes, you're allowed to laugh in front of me.

Too funny...I almost forgot I had posted something similar a year ago upon reading the article Who Lost Super Bowl III?.

Bear

Awkward silence

Awkward silence: an uncomfortable pause in conversation, causing tension or unpleasant feelings.


Example

Me: "I just found out today one of the guys at work had a prominent role in a TV show a few years ago."

Family: "Really? What show?"

Me: "To Catch a Predator"

awkward silence

In place of a 2011 recap

We were finally able to announce that the company I work for is being acquired. Thanks to regulatory rules, the long nights and weekends I worked pre-acquisition are only a warm-up for the fresh hell of the next two months. Instead of a recap for the year I want to look at my recent discoveries that have my highest recommendation for your consideration, whether to give as gifts to or in planning for your reading next year.

I’ll start with a series of books instead of an author: The Landmark Ancient Histories. For anyone wishing to discover and explore ancient history writers, you won’t do much better than this series. Last year I re-read Herodotus’ The Histories, this year I tackled Thucydides and Arrian, and I plan to read Xenophon’s Hellenika soon. The series is remarkable, providing maps, annotations, and appendices that allow you to delve into as much detail as you’d like on any or all of the works. In a conference earlier this year, series editor Robert Strassler said the upcoming editions of Polybius, Julius Caesar, and Xenophon’s Anabasis may be in the works for a while but should be released fairly close to each other.

Joseph Roth: I don’t believe I can sing the praises of The Radetzky March enough. Its complex analysis of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is told in beautiful prose and wry humor. The Legend of the Holy Drinker is a fun read (and I recommend the movie version, too), and I look forward to exploring more of Roth’s sparkling work soon.

Vasily Grossman: Life and Fate is a sprawling look at good and evil within man and the choices he makes. Set during the Battle of Stalingrad, Grossman provides an unflinching appraisal of fascism and communism, their similarities in restricting man’s freedom and perverting his spirit. Even in such a bleak setting Grossman emphasizes hope as long as “what is human in human beings” exists, weakness as well as strength, is allowed to flourish. If you get a chance to listen to the BBC4 Radio dramatization of Life and Fate, do so—it’s a notable adaptation. It may be a while before I get to more of Grossman’s work but I definitely intend to explore.

Bohumil Hrabal: Too Loud a Solitude was a fun romp with plenty to chew on regarding the role of literature in life, censorship and its consequences, and the joy of subversion. Hrabal defies easy categorization because of the book’s uneasy ambivalence about the role of man in the future. I already have I Served the King of England on hold and plan on reading more of his work next year.

If you're looking for additional ideas on books or authors, feel free to scroll back for more of my recommendations or click the blog links in the sidebar (and don't forget their links)--you'll find plenty to choose from in many different styles, formats, and genres.

No shadow, no stars, no moon, no care

November is proving it will be a rather rough month so I'm going to take a break from any scheduled posts. Lots of forthcoming news that will interest no one else, but nothing I can share yet. Hopefully I'll still find time to read and make the occasional post this month, although I've only read 4 pages in Augustus so far.

I'll leave you with a link I found in The Economist on the correspondence and friendship (of a sort) between T. S. Eliot and Groucho Marx. Some letters have appeared in The Groucho Letters, but reading about the relationship between the two men still makes me smile.

The Long Room Hub Associate Professor in Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying

He completed his PhD, entitled "To Hear The Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature" at UCD and was appointed to the School of English in 2006, after sucessfully decapitating his predecessor during a bloody battle which will long be remembered in legend and song. In 2011/12, he will be teaching on the following courses: "The Relevance of Crom in the Modern World", "Theories of Literature", "Vengeance for Beginners", "Deciphering the Riddle of Steel" and "D.H. Lawrence".

Unfortunately the Trinity College Dublin professor's page has been taken down, but the cached version can be seen here.

(Found at The Guardian)

Arrian and Alexander...more to come, at a limited level

Due to a loss in the family, posting will be sporadic this week. I wanted to go into detail about Books 4 and 5 of Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander but I may only have time to post on thematic and stylistic points in this section before the book discussion call on September 12.

I constantly mention this and will do so again--I encourage anyone interested in exploring more about Arrian or Alexander to participate in the Reading Odyssey's book discussion calls.

Down where the drunkards roll

While reading Joseph Roth's The Legend of the Holy Drinker I had this song stuck in my head and it won't go away even after I finished the novella. So I'll share it in hopes that it will eventually go away. Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III perform the old Richard & Linda Thompson song: