Mags, Gombrowicz

I've read so many magazines since my last post! An issue of GQ, two issues of The New Scientist, two issues of Eclectic Reading, an issue of Hello Canada, an issue of OK Magazine, an issue of The Economist, and an issue of The New Yorker.

I've also read four books by Witold Gombrowicz: the inevitable memoir, Polish Memories; a bunch of notes for a course in Philosophy in 6 hours and 15 minutes, undertaken at teh request of friends to prevent the author from committing suicide; a collection of short stories called Bacacay, one of which puts me in mind of A Modest Proposal; and a novel about voyeurism called Pornografia. Well, that was an interesting array of readings. Gombrowicz is unconventional in his use of material -- cannibalism in the aristocracy? But none of it is as novel to me as his admirers say.

Prawer Jhabvala, Donne, Cannetti

Since my last post, I've read Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust, excerpts from the sermons of John Donne, and Kafka's Other Trial, by Elias Cannetti. Donne was not as impressive as Bossuet, as far as sermons go. Prawer Jhabvala's novel was very good if conventional, about a white woman becoming a Nawab's mistress. I though Cannetti's book was elegantly written. All three books are very short.

The last of the Maya readings

I've read four books since yesterday. I finished McKillop's Ancient Maya, I've looked at the lavishly illustrated The artifacts of Tikal by H. Moholy-Nagy. In this book I discovered that some small figures are nicknamed Charlie Chaplins. I also read Maya sculpture by M.G. Robertson. I was interested to read An album of Maya architecture by Tatiana Proskouriakoff, since Proskouriakoff made one of the important discoveries in deciphering some of the writing on Maya steles. I also read Maya political science by Prudence Rice. The only book left to read is The classic Maya, by Houston and Inomata, which as its title indicates, only focuses on a single period in Maya history. I will then have run out of books to read and will have to go to the library, which only opens at 11 am this morning! I shall have to find other things to occupy myself...Last night, I read The Book of Lists before falling asleep...

Verlaine, Aswany, Khoury, McKillop, Fitzsimmons

Since my last post, I've read an issue of Eclectic Reading, an issue of The New Yorker, and an issue of The Economist. I've also read Aswany's The Yacoubian Building, , and I'm now part of the way through Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury, which is more didactic than I hoped, and the prose works of Verlaine. I gave up on Gate of the Sun when a footnote gave an politically motivated description of what happened at Deir Yasin, including a very high estimate of casualties. Verlaine I found sad in his autobiographical writings. I also read Death and the Classic Ancient Mayan Kings, by James Fitzsimmons. I picked up McKillop's Ancient Maya, but haven't begun yet.

Maya, Contemporary Arab Fiction, Hibbert, Gorki

Since my last post, I've read one issue of Eclectic Reading, and one issue of Hello Canada. I've also read George IV by Christopher Hibbert, which I enjoyed. I read the 800-pager The Ancient Maya, by R. J. Sharer and L.P. Traxler. It was well-illustrated, and well structured, and I learned a lot. I also read the latest in my contemporary Arab novels, I'jaam, whose main interest was a play on words somewhere in the thirty- or forty-first pages. I also read Mayan worldviews at conquest, edited by L.G. Cecil and T.W. Pugh, and Ancient Maya Cityscapes by L.P. Villamil.

I also read four novels, a memoir, and several stories by Maxime Gorki. I confess to being disappointed, after being quite drawn to these works based on their description. I enjoy pastorals, or stories of struggle, but struggle by agricultural workers or serfs against the Czar don't usually end well. My other problem was that my view of all this was influenced by, you guessed it, Doctor Zhivago. Oh well.

Maya, Contemporary Arab Fiction

Since my last post I've read an issue of Eclectic Reading, an issue of OK Magazine, and an issue of The New Scientist.

I've read an extraordinary picaresque novel written by an Arab Israeli,The secret life of Saeed, the ill-fated pessoptimist, by Imil Habibi. I also read a long novel about torture, Saddam City by Mahmoud Saeed. Finally I read a light novel called in translation Girls of Ryadh, by Alsanea Rajaa. None rose to the level of Naguib Mahfouz, but that is perhaps an unfair standard to use.

I've also started down my list of books about the Maya. First out of the starting block was The nature of an ancient Maya city by Thomas Guderjan, and Takeshi Inomata's Warfare and the fall of a fortified center, and Settlements and fortifications of Aguateca. I also read Stuart David's Palenque, which covers the history of the excavations; and the richly illustrated and very heavy Painting the Maya universe, by Dorie Reents-Budet and Joseph Ball. I also read Ancient Maya cityscapes by L.P. Villamil. I confess to being riveted by the pictures, since I am traveling to the ruins in April.

George IV, Gorky, Marcel Carne

Since my last post I've read three issues of Eclectic Reading, an issue of The New Yorker, and an issue of The New Scientist. I've also read Queen Caroline by Edward Parry, Prince of Pleasureby Saul David, E.A. Smith's George IV, J.B. Priestley's Prince of Pleasure and the Regency, and E.B. Turk's Child of Paradise. Nothing particularly stands out, but the fact that the Prince Regent was a great patron of the arts. I read a few short stories by Maxime Gorky, but I'll reserve my comments for when I've read the whole works.

Georgina Bedford, Monica Baldwin, William IV, Claude Simon, G.E. Lessing, Kafasani

Since my last post I've read an issue of Eclectic Reading, an issue of Hello Canada, and an issue of The New Scientist.

I've also read two books about the film maker Marcel Carne, both eponymous. I was interested to learn that he had had many troubles in getting films made. I've read a biography of King William IV by Gore Allen that wasn't very good, and a biography of Georgina, Duchess of Bedford called Mistress of the Arts, by Rachel Trethewey, which was not as insightful as I hoped. It was more like a list of where she stayed and who she had over and what her extravagant lifestyle was like. I read a classic of Palestinian literature by Ghassan Kanafani, with an unforgettable short story about powerlessness, called Men in the Sun. It also gave me the opportunity to suspect some plagiarism in the New Yorker review article which led me to read it. I read some Claude Simon, but I don't like the nouveau roman inspired by Ulysses, and I don't think this fashion will last, even if he did get the Nobel Prize. Finally I read I Leap Over the Wall by Monica Baldwin. This is the story of her adapting to the world after being in a contemplative order from 1914 to 1941. It gave me a poor impression of this woman's ability to cope with life at all -- she said she stayed in the convent for 18 years after she knew she was in the wrong place -- and she certainly made some impractical decisions after that. I felt sorry for her. Finally, I read Laocoon by G.E. Lessing, an essay about literature and art.