Still reading Susan

I'm extending my Susan Sontag month till middle of February. My initial goal has been achieved: I have read enough of/about her to form an informed opinion. But I'm finding that the more I learn, the more I still want. Not to mention, it's so much fun reading all around her. I'm spinning off to Edmund White, Cynthia Ozick, Alfred Chester and all kinds of interesting people.

Susan Sontag liked to read the whole oeuvre of an author she was interested in. Systematic and thoughtful reading of her works makes me feel connected with her somehow. A little tribute, that's all. A private thing.

January Syllabus

Sontag, Susan. Reborn. Journals and Notebooks 1947-1963. New York: Picador, 2008.
----. At the Same Time. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2007
----. The Benefactor. New York: Dell, 1978
----. The Volcano Lover. New York: Doubleday, 1992
Rollyson, Carl and Lisa Paddock. Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000
A Susan Sontag Reader. New York: Farrar, 1982 - selection

542 books read to date: 2000-2009

Abagnale, Frank W. Catch Me if You Can
Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie
Ali, Monica. In the Kitchen
Alighieri, Dante. La Vita Nuova
Allen, John L. Jr. Opus Dei
Armstrong, Luis. Satchmo. My Life in New Orleans
Armstrong, Sarah. Salt Rain
Athill, Diana. Stet
Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace
Atwood, Margaret. Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda
Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret. Good Bones
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale
Atwood, Margaret. Interlunar
Atwood, Margaret. Moral Disorder
Atwood, Margaret. Morning in the Burned House
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake
Atwood, Margaret. The Robber Bride
Atwood, Margaret. Rude Ramsey and the Roaring Radishes
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing
Atwood, Margaret. Negotiating with the Dead
Atwood, Margaret. Wilderness Tips
Austen, Jane. Emma x2
Austen, Jane. Persuasion
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice x2
Baigent, Michael and Leigh, Richard. The Inquisition
Baker, Nicholson. The Anthologist
Baldwin. Go Tell It On The Mountain
Banks, Russell. Sweet Hereafters
Bantock, Nick. Griffin and Sabine
Bantock, Nick. The Gryphon
Bantock, Nick. Sabine’s Notebook
Bantock, Nick. The Golden Mean
Barker, Clive. Abarat. Days of Magic, Nights of War
Baricco, Alessandro. Silk
Barron, Stephanie. The White Garden
Bartlett Allison Hoover. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Battle, Matthew. Library: an Unquiet History
Bennett, Arnold. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
Blake, Sarah. Grange House
Borchert, Don. Free for All
Borges, Jorge Luis. The Mirror of Ink
Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451
Bramham, Daphne. The Scret Lives of Saints. Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect
Brand, Dionne. Inventory
Bronte, Charlotte. The Foundling
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Brooks, Geraldine. People of the Book
Brown, Dan. Angels and Demons
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code
Brown. Ormond
Browne, Sir Thomas. Religio Laici
Bruen, Ken. The Guards
Bruen, Ken. Priest
Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare. The World as Stage
Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. A Little Princess
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden
Burroughs, Augusten. Dry
Burroughs, Augusten. Magical Thinking
Burroughs, Augusten. Possible Side Effects
Burroughs, Augusten. Running with Scissors
Burroughs, Augusten. A Wolf at the Table
Burton, Tim. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories
Buzbee, Lewis. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
Byatt, A. S. Angels and Insects
Byatt, A.S. The Children Book
Byatt, A. S. The Matisse Stories
Byatt, A. S. Possession
Byatt, A. S. Shadow of the Sun
Byatt, A. S. The Virgin in the Garden
Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky
Canetti, Elias. Earwitness
Canetti, Elias. Notes from Hampstead. The Writer's Notes: 1954-1971
Caple, Nataliee. Mackerel Sky
Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's
Carey, Peter. My Life As a Fake
Carroll, Jonathan. The Land of Laughs
Carr, Caleb. The Alienist
Carroll, Jonathan. Sleeping in Flame
Carroll, Jonathan. White Apples
Carroll, Jonathan. The Wooden Sea
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass
Carson, Anne. The Beauty of the Husband
Carson, Anne. If not, Winter
Chabon, Michael. Maps and Legends
Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring
Child, Julia. My Life in France
Clarke, Susanna. The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist
Coelho, Paulo. The Devil and Miss Prym
Coelho, Paulo. The Witch of Portobello
Coelho, Paulo. Veronika Decides to Die
Coetzee, J.M. Disgrace
Cohen, Matt. The Bookseller
Colette. The Pure and the Impure
Collins, Paul. The Sixpence House
Collis, Sidney. Good Writing for Business
Congreve, William. The Way of the World
Conrad, Joseph. Nostromo
Cornwell, Bernard. Heretic
Corrigan, Maureen. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. Finding and Losing Myself in Books
Cox, Michael. The Meaning of Night
Crafts, Hannah. The Bondswoman’s Narrative
Craig, Charmaine. The Good Men
Cumming, Elizabeth and Wendy Kaplan The Arts and Crafts Movement
Cunningham, Michael. The Hours
Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business
Davies, Robertson. Leaven of Malice.
Davies, Robertson. The Lyre of Orpheus
Davies, Robertson. The Manticore
Davies, Robertson. A Mixture of Frailties
Davies, Robertson. Reading and Writing
Davies, Robertson. The Rebel Angels
Davies, Robertson. Tempest-Tost
Davies, Robertson. World of Wonders
Davies, Robertson. What’s Bread in the Bone
Davis, Hubert J. Facts, Fancies and Folklore about Snakes
DeLillo, Don. The Body Artist
DeMarco-Barrett, Barbara. Pen on Fire
Den Hartog, Kristen. The Perpetual Ending
Den Hartog, Kristen. Water Wings
Diaz, Junot. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Dick, Philip K. Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep)
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations
Dirda, Michael. An Open Book
Doctorow, E. L. The Book of Daniel
Dublanica, Steve. Waiter Rant
Dunmore, Helen. A Spell of Winter
Dunning, John. Booked to Die
Dunning, John. The Bookman's Promise
Dunning, John. Bookman’s Wake
Dunning, John. The Sign of Book
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory. An Introduction
Eco, Umberto. Foucault’s Pendulum
Eco, Umberto. Mysterious Flame of the Queen Loana
Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose
Eliot, George. Middlemarch
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss x2
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man
Ellroy, James. The Big Nowhere
Engel, Howard. The Man Who Forgot How to Read
Ephron, Nora. I Feel Bad About my Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
Ephron, Nora. Wallflower at the Orgy
Erdal, Jennie. Ghosting
Erikson, Steven. Gardens of the Moon
Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex
Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides
Faber, Michel. The Courage Consort
Faber, Michel. The Crimson Petal and the White
Faber, Michel. Under the Skin
Fadiman, Anne. At Large and At Small
Fadiman, Anne. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom!
Faulkner, William. Go Down, Moses
Fermine, Maxence. The Black Violin
Fermine, Maxence. Snow
Fforde, Jasper. The Big Over Easy
Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair
Fforde, Jasper. Thursday Next. First Among Sequels
Fforde, Jasper. The Fourth Bear
Fforde, Jasper. Lost in a Good Book
Fforde, Jasper. Something Rotten
Fforde, Jasper. The Well of Lost Plots
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones
Findley, Timothy. Spadework
Fitch, Janet. White Oleander
Fitzgerald, Penelope. The Bookshop
Florescu, Radu R., McNally, Raymond T. Dracula. Prince of Many Faces
Follett, Ken. The Pillars of the Earth
Forster, E.M. Maurice
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India
Forster, E.M. A Rom with a View
Foster. The Coquette
Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit
Franzen, Jonathan. How to Be Alone
Freud, Sigmunt. Dora
Freud, Sigmunt. Three Essays On Sexuality
Freud, Sigmunt. Totem and Taboo
Frey, James. A Million Little Pieces
Frye, Northrop. The Well-Tempered Critic
Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart
Funke, Cornelia. Inkspell
Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere
Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South
Gaston, Bill. The Cameraman
Gekoski, Rick. Nabokov's Butterfly
George, Elizabeth. I, Richard
Gerritsen, Tess. The Bone Garden
Gibb, Camilla. The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life
Gibb, Camilla. Sweetness in the Belly
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink
Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point
Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha
Goodman, Allegra. The Kaaterskill Falls
Goodman, Carol. The Drowning Tree
Goodman, Carol. The Ghost Orchard
Goodman, Carol. The Lake of Dead Languages
Goodman, Carol. The Night Villa
Goodman, Carol. The Seduction of Water
Goodman, Carol. The Sonnet Lover
Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth
Gowdy, Barbara. Falling Angels
Gowdy, Barbara. Helpless
Gowdy, Barbara. Mister Sandman
Gowdy, Barbara. Romantic
Gruber, Michael. The Book of Air and Shadows
Gruber, Michael. The Forgery of Venus
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hanff, Helene. 84 Charing Cross Road
Hardy, Thomas. Far from the Madding Crowd x2
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles x2
Harris, Joanne. Blackberry Wine
Harris, Joanne. Chocolat
Harris, Joanne. Holy Fools
Harris, Robert. The Ghost
Harris, Thomas. Hannibal
Harris, Thomas. Hannibal Rising
Harris, Thomas. Red Dragon
Harrison, Kathryn. The Kiss
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Selected Tales and Sketches
Hay, Elizabeth. Small Change
Hay, Sheridan. The Secret of Lost Things
Hayder, Mo. Pig Island
Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf
Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers
Hellenga, Robert. The Sixteen Pleasures
Heller, Joseph. Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises
Hemon, Aleksandar. The Lazarus Project
Hitchens, Christopher. God is not Great. How Religion Poisons Everything
Hoffman, Alice. Blackbird House
Holdstock, Pauline. Beyond Measure
Holman, Sheri. The Dress Lodger
Hodgson, Barbara. Italy Out Of Hand
Hodgson, Barbara. The Tattooed Map
Homer. The Odyssey
Hood, Hugh. The New Athens
Hornby, Nick. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
Hornby, Nick. The Polysyllabic Spree
Hornby, Nick. Shakespeare Wrote for Money
Horwood, Harold. Among the Lions
Humphreys, C.C. Vlad. The Last Confession
Humphreys, Helen. The Lost Garden
Huston, Nancy. Dolce Agonia
Husotn, Nancy. Fault Lines
Huston, Nancy. Longings and Belongings
Huston, Nancy. Losing North
Huston, Nancy. Prodigy
Huston, Nancy. The Tale-Tellers
Huston, Nancy. Slow Emergencies
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World Revisited
Hynes, James. The Kings of Infinite Spaces
Hynes, James. The Lecturer’s Tale
Hynes, James. Publish and Perish
Ibbotson. Eva. Which Witch
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Iwasaki, Mineko. Geisha, a Life
Jacobs, A. J. The Guinea Pig Diaries
Jacobs, A.J. The Know-It-All
Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically
James, Henry. The Ambassadors
James, Henry. The Aspern Papers
James, Henry. The Golden Bowl
James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw x2
James, Henry. What Maisie Knew
Jensen, Jan Lars. Nervous System
Joyce, James. Dubliners
Kaewert, Julie. Unsigned
Kaufman, Jennifer. Mack, Karen. Literacy and Longing in L.A.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted
Kazin, Alfred. Writing Was Everything
Kermode, Frank. The Age of Shakespeare
Kindl, Patrice. Goose Chase
King, James. Margaret Laurence
King, James. Transformations
King, Stephen. Lisey's Story
King, Stephen. The Mist
King, Stephen. On Writing: Memoir of the Craft
Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian
Krementz, Jill. The Writer’s Desk
Lafarge, Paul. The Artist of the Missing
Lamb, Wally. She's Come Undone
Lamotte, Anne. Bird by Bird
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand
Lasdun, James. The Horned Man
Laurence, Margaret. The Fire-Dwellers
Laurence, Margaret. A Bird in the House
Laurence, Margaret. The Jest of God
Laurence, Margaret. The Stone Angel
Laurence, Margaret. The Tomorrow-Tamer and other Stories
Lawrence, D. H. Women in Love
Lawrence, D. H. The Rainbow
Lawson, Mary. Crow Lake
Leacock, Stephen. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Leavitt, David. Florence, A Delicate Case
Leblanc, Maurice. The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar
Lehane, Dennis. Mystic River
Lerner, Betsy. Food and Loathing
Lessing, Doris. The Golden Notebook
Lethem, Jonathan. The Disappointment Artist. Essays
Leverkton, The Best Little Girl in the World
Levin, Ira. The Stepford Wives
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Lewis, C.S. The Magician's Nephew
Lewis, Michael. Moneyball
Le Carre, John. The Constant Gardener
Lodge, David. Home Truths
London, Jack. Martin Eden
Lowry, Malcolm. Under the Volcano
Macdonald, Ann-Marie. Fall on Your Knees
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Macdonald, Ann-Marie. The Way the Crow Flies
Manguel, Alberto. Borges and I
Manguel, Alberto. Stevenson under the Palm Trees
Markson, David. The Last Novel
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Love in the Time of Cholera
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Martel, Yann. The Life of Pi
Martin, Sean. The Knights Templar
Mayes, Frances. Bella Tuscany
Mayes, Frances. Under the Tuscan Sun
McCall Smith, Alexander. Portuguese Irregular Verbs
McCullers, Carson. The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories
McEwan, Ian. Atonement
McKay, Ami. The Birth House
McLean, Helen. Significant Things
McMurtry, Larry. Books
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick
Mercer, Jeremy. Time Was Soft There: a Paris Soujourn at Shakespeare & Co.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight
Michaels, Anne. Fugitive Pieces
Michaels, Anne. Skin Divers
Michaels, Anne. The Weight of Oranges. Miner's Pond
Michaels, Anne. The Winter Vault
Miller, Rebecca. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Milton, John. Paradise Lost
Moers, Walter. The City of Dreaming Books
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Emily of New Moon
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Blue Castle
Moore, Alan and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1
Moore, Alan and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2
Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta
Moore, Jeffrey. The Memory Artists
Moore, Judith. Fat Girl
Morrison, Toni. Beloved
Morrison, Toni. Sula
Munro, Alice. Lives of Girls and Women
Munro, Alice. The Progress of Love
Munro, Alice. Runaway
Myles, Douglas. Prince Dracula. Son of the Devil
Nelson, Sara. So Many Books, so Little Time
Nesbit, Edith. The Magic City
Niffenegger, Audrey. The Three Incestuous Sisters
Norris, Kathleen. Acedia and Me
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Faith of a Writer
Oates, Joyce Carol. Rape: a Love Story
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Tattooed Girl
Oates, Joyce Carol. Wild Nights!
Ondaatje, Michael. Anil’s Ghost
Ondaatje, Michael. Coming Through Slaughter
Ondaatje, Michael. Divisadero
Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient
Ondaatje, Michael. Handwriting
Ondaatje, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion
Ondaatje, Michael. Rat Jelly
Ondaatje, Michael. Running in the Family
Ondaatje, Michael. There’s a Trick With a Knife I’m Learning to Do
O'Reilly, Mike and Mike Tennant. The Age of Persuasion. How Marketing Ate Our Culture
Orwell, George. 1984
Ozick, Cynthia. Heir to the Glimmering World
Ozick, Cynthia. Levitation: Five Fictions
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense
Pamuk, Orhan. Istambul. Memories and the City
Pamuk, Orhan. My Name is Red
Paris, Erna. The Sun Climbs Slow: Justice In The Age Of Imperial America
Patchett, Ann. Truth and Beauty. A Friendship
Pennac, Daniel. Better Than Life
Perdue, Lewis. Da Vinci Legacy
Peters, Ellis. Brother Cadfael's Penance
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar x2
Poulson, Christine. Murder is Academic
Powell, Julie. Julie & Julia
Powell, Julie. Cleaving. A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession
Pratchett, Terry. The Color of Magic
Pratchett, Terry. The Truth
Proulx, Annie. The Shipping News
Pullman, Philip. The Amber Spyglass
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass
Pullman, Philip. The Subtle Knife
Rand, Ayn. Anthem
Reed, Cheryl L. Unveiled. The Hidden Lives of Nuns
Rice, Anne. Lasher
Rice, Anne. Witching Hour
Richards, David Adams. The River of the Brokenhearted
Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Rilke, Reiner Maria. Letters to a Young Poet
Robbins, Tom. Another Roadside Attraction
Ronson, Jon. The Men Who Stare at Goats
Ross, Sinclair. As for Me and My House
Rotella, Mark. Stolen Figs
Roth, Philip. The Ghost Writer
Roth, Philip. The Human Stain
Roth, Philip. Plot against America
Rowlandson, Mary. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Rubenfeld, Jed. The Interpretation of Murder
Salinger, J.D. Franny and Zooey
Salinger, J.D. Raise the Roof, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2
Schmitter, Elke. Mrs. Sartoris
Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader
Schoemperlen, Diane. Our Lady of the Lost and Found
Schwartz, Lynne Sharon. Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books
Scott, Michael. The Alchemyst. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Scott, Michael. The Magician. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Scott Fitzgerald, F., Great Gatsby
Sebold, Alice. The Almost Moon
Sebold, Alice. Lovely Bones
Sebold, Alice. Lucky
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day
Seierstad, Asne. The Bookseller of Kabul
Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale
Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
Shakespeare, William. Henry IV part I
Shakespeare, William. Henry IV part II
Shakespeare, William. King Lear
Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare, William. The Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William. Othello
Shakespeare, William. Richard II
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night
Shea, Suzanne Strempek. Shelf Life
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
Shields, Carol. Swann
Shields, Carol. Unless
Shteyngart, Gary. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
Sijie, Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic
Siskind, Barry. Bumblebees Can’t Fly
Skvorecky, Josef. Two Murders in My Double Life
Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle
Smith, Sarah. Chasing Shakespeares
Smokler, Kevin. Bookmark Now
Snicket, Lemony. The Bad Beginning
Sontag, Rachel. House Rules
Sophocles, Antigone
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Sorel, Edward. Literary Lives
Spark, Muriel. The Finishing School
Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society
Stix, Gary and Lacob, Miriam. Who Gives a Gigabyte?
Stoker, Bram. Dracula
Sullivan, Rosemary. Labyrinth of Desire
Sullivan, Rosemary. The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out
Suskind, Patrick. Perfume
Swan, Susan. Stupid Boys Are Good to Relax with
Swan, Susan. The Wives of Bath
Swan, Susan. What Casanova Told Me
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels
Swift, Jonathan. A Tale of Tub and Related Pieces
Tan, Shaun. The Arrival
Tartt, Donna. The Secret History
Taylor, Peter Lane. Science at the Extreme
Teasdale, Sara. Love Songs
Thackeray, William Makepeace. The Rose and the Ring
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair
Thomas, D.M. Lady with a Laptop
Thoreau, David Henry. Walden: Or Life in the Woods
Toibin, Colm. The Master
Tosches, Nick. In the Hand of Dante
Tremaine, Rose. Restoration
Trollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers
Trollope, Anthony. The Warden
Trow, M.J. Vlad the Impaler. In Search of the Real Dracula
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Ullmann, Linn. Before You Sleep
Uppal, Priscila. The Divine Economy of Salvation
Vandever, Jennifer. The Bronte Project
Vonnegut, Kurt. Armageddon in Retrospect
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle
Wells, H. G. Invisible Man
Welty, Eudora. One Writer's Beginnings
Wente, Margaret. An Accidental Canadian
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence
Wharton, Thomas. Icefields
Wharton, Thomas. Logogryph
Wharton, Thomas. Salamander
Whitehouse, Howard. The Faceless Fiend
Whitehouse, Howard. The Strictest School in the World
Whyte, Jack. Knights of the Black and White
Whyte, Jack. Order in Chaos
Whyte, Jack. Standard of Honor
Wicker, Christine. Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that talks to the Dead
Wiebe, Rudy. The Scorched-Wood People
Wiesel, Elie. Night
Willett, Jincy. The Writing Class
Wilson, Ethel. Swamp Angel
Winchester, Simon. The Meaning of Everything
Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges Are not the Only Fruit
Wodehouse, P.G. My Man Jeeves
Wolff, Tobias. Old School
Wolitzer, Hilma. Summer Reading
Woolf, Virginia. Carlyle's House and Other Sketches
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard B. Adultery
Wright, Richard B. Clara Callan
Wright, Richard B. October
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Angel's Game
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Shadow of the Wind
Zaid, Gabriel. So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance
Zemon Davies, Natalie. The Return of Martin Guerre

Books 2009

So here's my inventory for 2009. I almost didn't make it. Needless to say, Icefields, which I just finished yesterday, was a bit of a sprint, but now it's on the list and I officially hit 70. Methinks, not too shabby.

Wharton, Thomas. Icefields ***
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) ***
McCall Smith, Alexander. Portuguese Irregular Verbs ***
Powell, Julie. Cleaving. A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession ****
Moers, Walter. The City of Dreaming Books ****
Ali, Monica. In the Kitchen **
Oates, Joyce Carol. Wild Nights! ***
James, Henry. The Golden Bowl ****
Baricco, Alessandro. Silk ***
Whyte, Jack. Order in Chaos ***
O'Reilly, Mike and Mike Tennant. The Age of Persuasion. How Marketing Ate Our Culture ****
Teasdale, Sara. Love Songs *****
Jacobs, A.J. The Guinea Pig Diaries ***
Carr, Caleb. The Italian Secretary **
Epstein, Joseph. In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage *****
Ronson, Jon. The Men Who Stare at Goats ***
Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic ***
Carr, Caleb. The Alienist ***
Barron, Stephanie. The White Garden ***
Baker, Nicholson. The Anthologist ***
Moore, Alan and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2 ***
Moore, Alan and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 ***
Forster, E.M. A Room with a View ***
Gruber, Michael. The Forgery of Venus ****
Dunning, John. The Sign of the Book ***
Dunning, John. The Bookman's Promise ***
Bartlett Allison Hoover. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much ****
Norris, Kathleen. Acedia and Me ***
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day ****
Scott, Michael. The Magician. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. ***
Hemon, Aleksandar. The Lazarus Project ****
Child, Julia. My Life in France ***
Bronte, Charlotte. The Foundling **
Wicker, Christine. Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that talks to the Dead ***
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Angel's Game ****
Powell, Julie. Julie & Julia ***
Dublanica, Steve. Waiter Rant ***
Funke, Cornelia. Inkspell ***
Vonnegut, Kurt. Armageddon in Retrospect ***
Woolf, Virginia. Carlyle's House and Other Sketches ***
Brand, Dionne. Inventory ***
Cumming, Elizabeth and Wendy Kaplan. The Arts and Crafts Movement ****
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory. An Introduction ***
Byatt, A.S. The Children Book ****
Tan, Shaun. The Arrival ****
Cunningham, Michael. The Hours ****
Huston, Nancy. Prodigy ****
Welty, Eudora. One Writer's Beginnings ***
Carroll, Jonathan. Sleeping in Flame ****
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight **
Chabon, Michael. Maps and Legends ****
Michaels, Anne. The Winter Vault ****
Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta ****
Hornby, Nick. Shakespeare Wrote for Money ****
Borges, Jorge Luis. The Mirror of Ink ***
Bramha, Daphne. The Secret Lives of Saints. Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect ***
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Faith of a Writer ****
Tartt, Donna. The Secret History ****
Atwood, Margaret. Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda ***
Harris, Robert. The Ghost ****
Atwood, Margaret. Rude Ramsey and the Roaring Radishes ***
Armstrong, Luis. Satchmo. My Life in New Orleans ***
Wolitzer, Hilma. Summer Reading ****
Diaz, Junot. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ****
Blake, Sarah. Grange House ****
McMurtry, Larry. Books ***
Ozick, Cynthia. Levitation: Five Fictions ***
Tosches, Nick. In the Hand of Dante **
Cohen, Matt. The Bookseller ****
Dante, La Vita Nuova **

Some statistics:

Fiction: 35

Biography: 11

Cultural Studies/Politics/Other nf: 6

Children/YA: 5

Drama: 1

Poetry: 4

Literary Essays: 4

Comics: 4

There will be some resolutions based on the above. Next year will be much more organized (and a tribute to Nick Hornby and his Believer articles - more about that later). There will be a method to my madness (and madness it is, not necessarily all that gentle). There is a fresh bookcase in my room, only partially filled. So much shelf space! What possibilities!

Slowing things down to see

I was reading in Italian today and I had an epiphany. I understood what reading is for me. I must explain that my knowledge of Italian leaves a lot to be desired and I insist on reading in that language only to strengthen my denial of that fact. I know my basics but it never seems enough to forgo the dictionary (unless I’m reading kids’ stuff or lyrics to Laura Pausini’s songs). When I read in Italian, the first go is usually just to get the feel for the passage and the second go is underlining the words that I didn’t understand and looking them up.

And then the story becomes clear.

And this is it. The necessity to look up the words essential to make sense of things not only slows things down but also makes the process visible to me. This discovery, this unveiling – this is what I want. A slow-arriving understanding, like eyes suddenly seeing the whole panorama instead of just a small snippet of the horizon. In this way I could almost manufacture the same sensation one has when reading a book that’s very plot-driven. The finding-things-out part makes it soooooo good! The reward of getting the whole picture is almost independent of the story itself. In how many ways can I exploit/explore it!

Henry James, The Golden Bowl

Me and Henry – we had some unfinished business. The unfinished business was The Golden Bowl, which I started and abandoned close to the middle some weeks ago. Or was it months? The book seemed too dense – almost impossible to get through, despite its obvious qualities. So I left it unfinished close to the end of part I, Prince.

At that time I knew that the Prince in question is Amerigo, an Italian aristocrat from an impoverished family, who can’t afford his own life. Through efforts of Mrs. Assingham, a friend and a confidante, he marries Maggie, the daughter of an American millionaire and collector. In exchange for a decent kind of happiness and means to procure the way of life he grew accustomed to, Amerigo becomes another feather in Mr. Verver’s cap. But his life is not to be so comfortable after all. Charlotte Stant, a ghost from his past, appears on Ververs’ door. She knows Maggie from their school days – everybody in the family knows that, and she knows Amerigo from that time in Italy when they loved each other passionately but could not marry because they were both penniless – and nobody in the family knows that. Mrs. Assingham knows but does not tell because she is immensely impressed by both Amerigo and Charlotte and has much faith in their ability to restrain themselves from resuscitating their relationship. Besides, Mr. Verver seems like a perfect candidate for a husband – why shouldn’t Charlotte have as much comfort as Amerigo?

And that’s where I stopped. When I returned, it was to part II, Princess. One might say, that’s where the story begins. This part is all for Maggie – how she discovers her husband and mother-in-law’s common past and what she does with that knowledge. Needless to say, Maggie becomes much more impressive than Charlotte and Amerigo have ever been. She surpasses everybody’s expectations and ends up on top.
There is a movie, which I will probably not watch because according to reviews it doesn’t maintain James’ vision. But I was reading the book with the actors’ images in my mind so I think it’s most appropriate to use those for the character sketches that follow.

Amerigo is charming and humble, and seriously humiliated by his position in life. He becomes a trophy husband/son-in-law but also genuinely respects his wife and her father, and even loves them for making his life easier. Yet he’s also a victim, as he realizes that he can’t have the life he wanted (with Charlotte) and will have to settle. He wants to maintain his value in the eyes of his purchaser, Mr. Verver, but he’s constantly tempted to regain some measure of independence. We grow to like him very much in the first part, where we sympathize with him – so much in fact that we may miss his opportunism and spinelessness, which become so apparent in the second part of the book. Amerigo, still as charming as ever, allows women to deal with the consequences of his actions. The resulting loss of self-respect he can deal with, and become all the more sympathetic. And everybody forgives him.

Maggie starts off as an innocent, though perceptive young girl. In the beginning, Amerigo is quite taken with her, and may be the only one suspecting her actual depth. She is capable of much more understanding – and much more resolve and action, as we find out later – than people give her credit for. In the end, she is the one to hold everybody together but of her own volition she becomes the destroyer – the one breaking people apart. Yet she still manages to make it seem like she’s holding everybody together. All she’s holding are the strings, I’m afraid. But her husband doesn’t seem to mind...

Mr. Verver, Maggie’s father, may either be a man who’s clueless and unaware of what’s happening in his small circle or who possesses some kind of wisdom that allows him to remove himself from any unpleasant situation and remove any kind of unpleasant feelings from his mind. His relationship with Maggie is troubling – he arranges his whole life to facilitate that relationship. He finds her a husband who will be forever bound to him. Even thought on the surface he marries Charlotte to please his daughter, he doesn’t spend enough time working on convincing Maggie that it’s a real marriage and that she should really go on with her life. A genius or a naive old man?

Charlotte Stant is trying to organize her life. She may be amoral but she doesn’t have much choice after all. She’s got no means of her own so she has to depend on the kindness of strangers, which is given very much on merit, since she doesn’t have anything else but her personality to recommend her. Because of her circumstances, she perfected the art of survival and manages to create a comfortable life for herself. She doesn’t have illusions – she knows Mr. Verver doesn’t love her and is only marrying her because he thinks it will allow Maggie not to worry about her father for a change. She works with what she’s got – so when an old lover crosses her path, she takes him in just as she would any other opportunity to better her life. Charlotte is as much of an opportunist as Amerigo, but she doesn’t have his charm and she’s a woman so her character is much more “stainable”. Needless to say, nobody forgives her.

James is a miniaturist – he takes four people, puts them into a situation and lets the people develop. There’s not much plot – the characters are everything and even though it’s difficult to plough through that solid prose (with only an occasional relief of a dialogue), the result is as rewarding as the execution. I can’t really say I understood or appreciated everything in the book; for that I would have to re-read it many times. But I’ve seen enough to appreciate it and allow it to impress me, even without the full grasp of all its qualities. Having said that, I’m planning to refrain from reading James’ novels for now. Too much meat. I’ll focus on his memoirs, maybe a biography, his Italian sketches, a short story or two. I need to take it slow but our relationship will develop.

Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist

Some weeks after I finished the book, alas, it's time. I have to record some of this stuff that I've been trying to consume at a fast pace till the end of the year. So now I'm going back in time to leave here some words about The Anthologist.

I expected much more of this beautiful cover but I still enjoyed it. I thought it would be a beautiful book about an unfulfilled writer and it was, in a way. The protagonist of this book is an anthologist. As such, he's taking on and making his own work of others -- that's why he will remain nameless in this review. He isn't nameless in the book.

He is a poet writing an introduction to a poetry anthology. Which does not contain his own poems, I might add. So who is he? A poet or an introduction writer? He isn't sure himself but he doesn't seem to want to cross over to the dark side -- so he is completely blocked. He rambles about what he might be putting in the introduction but nothing ends up on paper.

He unwittingly compares himself to other poets who wrote introductions to anthologies of poetry: Auden, Longfellow, Merrill. Putting himself in this glorious company doesn't seem to help but it almost gives him an illusion of being in the same league. Besides, if they did it, maybe it wouldn't be such a betrayal for him to do it. But shouldn't he be writing beautiful poems instead of obsessing about a deadline for the introduction? The completion of it would put his life in order -- his girlfriend would come back to him and the angry though encouraging e-mails from his editor would stop. Would it make him the man he wants to be though?

The book is beautifully written and very informative. I jotted down a lot of names of the poets I've never heard before. Some reading will follow. It didn't touch my soul but it did affect my future. Isn't that all I'm really looking for?

Back from New York Caleb Carr, The Alienist

We just came back a few days ago from a week long trip to New York. My first. After many books and many movies set there, I now finally have some context and can exclaim enthusiastically "I was there!" next time I encounter even the smallest allusion to NY. In this way, I adopted it and by simple being there I have the right to call it my own.

Nothing unpleasant happened (like a mugging or somebody peeing on my shoes - what can I say, travel preparation and pre-travel research can make one slightly paranoid) so the experience was completely unspoiled. I did almost all that I wanted although had to skip New York Public Library and the Morgan Library. Maybe it's better this way - I already want to live there for some time and I don't need additional motivation.

Of course living there will not be happening. For now, I just have the unfortunate New York wannabe, much smaller, although with some interesting places that I will be visiting from now on, if only to stay in the New York state of mind. And when I get really nostalgic, it's not really that far. 12 hours on a train - a much more humane way to travel. Besides, on a 1.5 hr long plane trip I couldn't attempt anything longer than a Coelho or a Coetzee. Here instead I treated myself to The Alienist by Caleb Carr - a New York period mystery which was quite exciting now that I could imagine some architectural and geographical details to go with the story.

It's a good book to read on a train - in my first bout I didn't have to stop reading for about 4 hours and that really allows you to get into the story. It's a book easy to abandon - it's dense and gory in places, seems to contain almost too much for comfort. But it's a rich story, full of details and useless knowledge which it's always so nice to obtain. About turn-of-he-century psychiatry, serial killers, juvenile crime, asylums and prisons. About politicians and patricians (Theodore Roosevelt figures in it pretty prominently, and there is a meeting that happens in J. P. Morgan's house, which made me really sorry that there was no time for the Morgan Library). About crazy doctors, deviants and journalists. The Alienist wasn't completely satisfying but it was a clever book. I would probably enjoy it even more if I read a nicer edition.

On the trip back, after I finished The Alienist, I sunk my teeth into The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers - a book I've been unsuccessfully trying to find in Canada (I was only able to find a Polish edition in a Polish bookstore in Mississauga, and that wasn't quite what I was going for). Haven't finished it yet (am distracted by The Men Who Stared at Goats, among other things), but it's about a dinosaur who's a writer and who travels to a city where everybody thinks, eats and breathes books. Just the descriptions of the city make my mouth water. Mmmmmmm...

John Dunning, The Sign of the Book

Serialization. This was one of the first literary terms I learned during my stint at UofT. That was during my first day, in my first class. Since I didn’t speak a word of English at the time, I went with an escort. The escort was supposed to take notes for me, just in case I wasn’t making it. He was also supposed to deflect attention if by some strange coincidence the professor’s gaze landed on me. While I was busy blending with the wall, my escort (who in later years became my designated essay editor/proof-reader, which probably didn’t help our relationship in the least, but it’s still too early to broach the subject on some therapist’s couch) participated in the class discussion. If I remember correctly, he used fantasy novels as an example of serialization. That was after he witnessed my absolute enchantment with the unparalleled Sapkowski and his Polish fantasy series, The Witcher. I would read and re-read those volumes constantly – because once you start, you can’t just stop in the middle of the series, no matter how well you remember the ending from the last time!

The effects of serialization got to me with Dunning. Having discovered him while I worked in Chapters some years ago, I somehow stopped reading his Cliff Janeway series (that stoppage may have coincided with the beginning of my banking career). I liked the books a lot but since my new job demanded constant re-education (in order to have a hope of ever finding a way out of it, of course), much recreational reading was forsaken (with the exception of the material geared specifically towards preventing the splattering of my brains on a sidewalk in the Lawrence and Dufferin area of Toronto). Dunning was forsaken too. He featured proudly on my Books-about-Books list (one has to collect something, and at the time, in the absence of a room of my own – with a view or without it – I collected things that can be written down, like book lists), but I didn’t come back to him until recently. After The Bookman’s Promise, the effects of serialization kicked in and minutes after finishing it I proceeded to Indigo to purchase the next book in the series. I happened to find it in a nice slightly enlarged mass-market format – it didn’t open very well but it was nice to the touch and quite pleasant-looking. And the plot didn’t disappoint either.

Cliff Janeway is a bit restless now and possibly getting bored with being just an antiquarian bookseller (having left behind a career in Denver police in the first volume of the series). He still has the girl that he caught in The Bookman’s Promise and overall life is good, but the book (and life) formula of him stumbling upon a book mystery is wearing a little thin. Maybe he could become a private investigator specializing in book mysteries instead? I think it’s a very good idea. It would legitimize what Dunning was de facto doing with Cliff but giving the books more of a direction and clear-cut corners.

In The Sign of the Book, Cliff’s girlfriend Erin asks him to investigate a murder allegedly committed by her former best friend. Laura Marshall is accused of (and confesses to) killing her husband. Bobby Marshall was a book collector but also Erin’s first love. A wall full of signed first editions may be the murder motive. Aside from the usual book stuff and shady bookseller stuff, Dunning gives us some psychological drama here. He builds an interesting love triangle (or a quadrangle, really, as dead Bobby features quite prominently in the lives of all characters), starring Erin, Cliff and Laura, that takes the book to the next level. Nice surprise. Nice surprise ending too.

Wasn’t that much of a surprise for me tough – about 80 pages to the end I realized that the uncanny déjà vu feeling that I was having from the beginning is completely justified. The Sign of the Book is on my Books-Read-in-2005 list! I must have skipped its predecessor – The Bookman’s Promise – and just gone to this one. Very unusual. Did I just ignore the serialization imperative? I skipped a piece of a puzzle – has the puzzle been affected by it? Has my enjoyment of it? I’m going to assume it has and even though since I re-read The Sign of the Book and it can’t go on my Books-Read-to-Date list (524 on last count), I enjoyed the fulfillment that comes with patching up that hole. I restored order to my series.

Allison Hoover Bartlett, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much John Dunning, The Bookman's Promise

Books. Of course he loved them too much. He stole them from unsuspecting book dealers using stolen credit card numbers, which then made his victims liable for fraudulent charges. The way he saw it, he wanted first editions and the fact that he couldn’t afford them made the world unfair. The dealers were overpricing the books, didn’t want to make them available to him. So he punished them. How was it fair that they had them and he didn’t? He wanted the books and he “got” them.

John Gilkey didn’t spend much time in prison. Even though the price of a rare book available to him from the rare book dealers could reach tens of thousands of dollars (the really high-ticket items usually changed hands in a more private – or a more public – way), in the public mind a book is still a book. Did Gilkey avoid a long-term incarceration because of the perception, because he was clever or just lucky? Allison Hoover Bartlett doesn’t get an answer to this question. She doesn’t get many answers, really – her research is stilted from the start by the first lesson Ken Sanders taught her: that all book thieves are liars. Ken Sanders would know. For years he had been the security chair of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. He organized an information network that tracked book thefts all over the country – and he was instrumental in Gilkey’s arrest.

It did seem Gilkey lied a lot. He did it with a single-mindedness and consistency of a psychopath. He justified his crimes with the same skill. He didn’t see anything morally reprehensible in “taking” the books from the booksellers. He didn’t see a reason why they would deserve these treasures more than he did.

Allison Hoover Bartlett tells a good story. Sometimes she comes dangerously close to becoming an enabler and she does give Gilkey an outlet – to present his story to the world. But Gilkey has an agenda. Does the author write down what he wants us to see? Considering how concerned Gilkey was with how he’s perceived, I wonder what he thought of the book. The same moral blind spot that he had when it comes to books may have allowed him to see the book not for what it was but for what he wanted it to be. He may have actually believed that his final plea – for people to send him rare books to keep him from stealing them – will be answered with all the seriousness it deserves…

When I worked in Chapters, I was subjected to first editions daily. They were usually pristine, with shiny unclipped dust jackets and pages that made a crackling sound when they were turned for the first time. Of course those first editions were all too modern to be valuable but I still left most of my paycheck in the store. Some of the books were even signed by the authors who came to the store hoping that by making their mark in the book they will increase the sales. Of course we would never let them sign too many copies – if the books were autographed by the author, it was that much harder to return them to the publisher if they didn’t sell…


John Dunning’s books made me aware of the other first editions. The ones that should not be in pristine condition but are. The ones that have a history and don’t smell of ink anymore. After finishing The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, I wanted to stay a bit longer in that world so I picked up The Bookman’s Promise (mass-market paperback that I picked up some years ago at a Goodwill for $2 – quite expensive by Goodwill standards, although I hear that a signed first edition of his Booked to Die can be bought for 950.00 USD).

Cliff Janeway, former cop turned bookseller and rare books expert, makes a dying woman a promise. He’s going to find the rare book collection that belonged to her grandfather and after his death ended up in hands of dishonest book dealers. I haven’t finished it yet but I already know I will like it. And probably, like so many other books, it will put me on a journey that will continue long after The Bookman’s Promise is over. Let’s just say, I’m expecting to acquaint myself with Richard Burton in near future. I just have to find out how he learned those 29 languages…

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project

Many things prepared me for The Lazarus Project and its author.

My immigrant experience allowed me to read the early chapters of the book with the sense of recognition, which would hit me in the face with such strength that sometimes I thought Hemon overdid it a little. My eastern European past makes me understand both the visuals and the history – that history that in my country was both hidden and drilled into me by teachers and grandparents. My early wish to become a writer writing in English – a language still so foreign to me – made me very sensitive to Hemon’s use of language. Without thinking I looked for any kind of overkill, and both disliked and admired it. It often seems that he’s trying to prove his fluency over and over again – like Conrad whom he acknowledges as one of his influences, he is writing in a language wet and sticky with adjectives and adverbs. The word “hirsute” appears in the book at least twice. The elaboration of his descriptions makes it impossible to skip anything, but also plays nicely with the idea of taking pictures. The author seems to be competing with the photographer for the best representation of something that can’t be expressed in any medium – grief. I recognize that too...

Hemon’s protagonist is Brik (last name to a first name that is used very infrequently – like for all eastern Europeans, last name is the important one, fist name not being individualistic enough, not really having much meaning at all), a Bosnian writer living in Chicago. As part of his writing project, he embarks on a journey to learn everything there is to know about the subject of his book – Lazarus Averbuch, a Jewish immigrant who having survived pogroms of the Jews in the Ukraine comes to Chicago only to get shot on a suspicion of being an anarchist.

It’s impossible to read this book and not to interpret it biographically. I don’t think the author would mind either – he seems to be provoking it. He surely managed to exorcise some demons along the way there.

The story moves back and forth between Brik and Lazarus. At first, the two twines are strictly divided; later they become almost interchangeable as Lazarus’s story seeps into Brik’s.

The book is highly quotable – I found myself groping around for a pencil whenever I opened it. I want to remember it. It will help me navigate my own grief...

Julie Powell, Julie & Julia Julia Child, My Life in France

I’d been waiting for another Nora Ephron movie. I’d been excited and expectant, and reading cookbooks to put myself in the right mood for it. Then Julie & Julia arrived and I liked it a lot.

I framed the movie with two books it’s based on: Julie & Julia and My Life in France. I considered making Julia Child the foreword and Julie Powell the afterword but the movie cover of Child’s mass-market edition discouraged me a bit. So I purchased Powell’s book first – also with a movie cover, but somehow less irksome.

My knowledge of this book at that time consisted of what’s in the movie trailer. Needless to say, when I started reading, I was at first slightly annoyed by all the information that was not in the trailer. Later the good qualities overshadowed my initial doubts and I read on with pleasure, skipping and skimming only on occasion.
I’m familiar with similar projects as the one Powell undertook. A.J. Jacobs and his read-the-Encyclopaedia-Britannica and follow-the-Bible-literally-for-a-year books managed to both impress and discourage me. Impress – because the idea of doing something wholly and completely appeals to me immensely. Discourage – because of how rarely we can actually commit without compromising along the way. Even if Jacobs wasn’t skipping, he surely wasn’t retaining either. As for the Bible, can we be surprise that at some point he had to start picking and choosing the rules he would follow? We can’t but we can still be disappointed that here there’s another finite task that can’t be completed.

It was similar with Julie Powell – in her project to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and writing a blog about her progress, she did arrive at a point where she decided to skip the recipe variations (I think it was around the aspic section). That’s completeness compromised.
Enough about compromises though. The book is funny and touching at times. Julie Powell is both proud of her accomplishment and humbled by what she still can’t do. In the course of the book, we see her life change – not just because all of a sudden she gets a publishing contract and everybody’s interested in what she has to say, but also because she proves to herself that with a bit of inspiration and some spite one can do remarkable things.

I gained even more respect for Julie Powell after I read that Julia Child wasn’t thrilled with the Julie/Julia Project. Powell’s reaction to it, after the initial shock, is admirable, and endears her to the reader even more.

Now on to Julia. Because of the above, I didn’t like her very much when I was starting My Life in France. I did like Meryl Streep’s portrayal of her in the movie but I didn’t know enough about Child to manufacture a soft spot for her in my heart. I never saw her show; as a cultural icon, she’s still completely unknown to me. Yet the Julia Child of My Life in France is an adorable creature – full of life and passion, and color. She talks about food and people, and the world she travelled. She talks about her marriage and friendships. She lovingly describes every apartment and every remarkable meal. The language is smooth and beautiful – probably to great extent thanks to Alex Prud’homme, her husband’s grandnephew who co-wrote the book and finished it himself after Julia’s death.

The book is one of the more effective autobiographies I’ve ever read. It’s also very entertaining. Powell was right – this is not the Julia who would discount the blog devoted to her recipes, however spicy the language.

Christine Wicker, Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that talks to the Dead

Many years ago, I was very interested in paranormal phenomena. I watched The X Files religiously. I participated in the Silva Mind Control Method workshops and I learned Reiki. I let people lay their hands on me and tell me that I’m allergic to dairy and that there is some energy around my throat. I practiced visualization and was very pleased when in my university years (the first time around) my marks looked exactly like I imagined them. I didn’t have any qualms – it was still me getting all those As – I was just using some extra tools. I was initiated as a Reiki practitioner by a Reiki master. He put his hands on me and afterwards, a blue light was coming out of my head. At least that’s what was reported by the aura-seeing woman who helped with the workshop. After that, I cured some headaches.

I have a propensity to believe though. Even when the religion disappeared from my life, I was still looking for something to hand on to. As of now, it’s knowledge. I believe in learning things and in becoming a larger person in this way. But I’m still open – wide open, in a new-agey sort of way.

Every summer mediums come to Lily Dale. They set up in Victorian houses and wait for people with questions. The mediums give them answers to questions often unasked. Often, they’re wrong. On occasion, they’re right.

One day I’ll go to Lily Dale, take some courses, walk around the Stump, maybe stay at Shelley Takei’s house. I want to. I feel I could relax there. That’s what Christine Wicker did. She came to Lily Dale to write a book – a proper piece of journalism. No prejudices but also no going easy on things. She sketches a miniature of a town and its people as they are now. On occasion, she mentions them as they used to be and still everything and everybody rings real. She comes and goes. She starts to believe and she’s turned off right after. That’s the only response we can have in these empirical times to a place like Lily Dale.

Next summer. Some long weekend. It’s only about 3 hours away from where I am.

Ewa Madeyska, Katoniela

What is it about books that allow us such self-recognition!

If anything, I am predisposed to dislike Polish literature, if only because I sometimes feel that after years of obsession with the English language I can't understand it properly. A lot of it reads like a bad translation from another language. My lack of attachment, and unfortunately lack of contact with today's Polish (how much could it change from what it was 10 years ago, you ask -- well, quite a bit) makes me fear books in Polish. I usually can't find the connection anymore -- and I end up annoyed both by my sudden disconnect with my native language and the seemingly inept prose that I'm subjected to.

Katoniela ended up in my mailbox by way of the same wonderful person who years ago put in my hands The Land of Laughs and Salem's Lot. I tend to read what she recommends. I tend to love what she recommends, even if I'm predisposed to hate it. But with Katoniela it was so much more.

The book circles around the life of Aniela, a girl, then a woman, who feels around to find an appropriate spiritualiy in the world dominated by catholicism. It circles around it but never quite gets to the centre. As the book unfolds, we get new layers of Aniela's life -- and the different kids of religiousness that she manufactures for herself. We start with her suspicions that she was never baptised. We get her attempt at being a creator herself. We see her world populated with various religious and quasi religious personas: Black Marian who proudly displayes what's best of him in the bushes near the White Church (I know the White Church -- I've spent many hours in it praying for various As during the 4 years I spent studying to be a lawyer in B.

There was no Black Marian there -- but then, that was some years later.), Marta -- Aniela's saintly sister -- a real saint, Totalny -- Aniela's blessed husband -- a fake one. There is something not out of place in an epic poem in this book. The character travels through the circles of hell to emerge stronger and victorious, however scathed. I was proud of Aniela.

Back to self-recognition then. Even though my home looked different than Aniela's (my agnostic parents never encouraged religiousness), my youth was centered around the church. I was a member of a group like the one led by Aniela's nameless husband, named "Totalny" ("total" in English) for the completeness of his surrender to the glory of God. I knew people like him. I've seen assorted Black Marian's in parks. My best friend, whom I met at a church camp (where we both led groups of unsuspecting young minds into even more submission) almost became a wife of a failed seminarist. As I said, I know the White Church, which is so prominent in the book and in Aniela's life.

Katoniela is an amazing book. Aside from the subject matter, which I may be finding fascinating because of all this familiarity, it is so well written, it made me put away several other books that I was reading at the time (hasn't happened before for a book in Polish). I set aside Henry James for Ewa Madeyska! Her turn of phrase and elaborate, many-stories high descriptions of tiny events make for a prose that's miniature and universal at the same time.

Katoniela made me set up a Polish section in my blog.

Elizabeth Cumming and Wendy Kaplan, The Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts movement is very close to my heart. It proclaims that every manner of artistic expression is equally worthy. It promotes a holistic approach to an artistic endeavour, encouraging the artist to become a master of all trades adjacent to his main pursuit. In this way, an architect would become a draftsman, master builder and landscape designer; a furniture designer would learn woodworking and finish his own designs and a painter would mix his own paints and frame the finished product.

The movement that started in England in late nineteenth century, and was fronted by three great architects: William Morris, C.R. Ashbee and W.R. Lethaby, with John Ruskin as its theorist, gave power to the people (like socialism, with which it was associated). They now had the right to produce the things that would beautify their lives, if they were so inclined. Or they could purchase affordable useful works of art produced according to the Arts and Crafts movement principles. The Arts and Crafts movement was supposed to be the end of the art for the elite.

The movement failed to meet the goal of art for the people, as the objects designed with love and made by hand proved very expensive and slow to produce. But it inspired people and it soon crossed the ocean where it contributed to the creation of a bungalow, for example. The principle of building things into the landscape (not demolishing the landscape in order to supplant it with buildings) added to many a neighbourhood in California.

There’s a need for Arts and Crafts approach these days. In Toronto, nothing looks natural anymore – and there is no need to create anymore. Mass-production of everything a human being may need depletes the object of originality, not to mention, soul. Pottery Barn tries to manufacture whimsy, but somehow IKEA seems much closer to the Arts and Crafts ideal (even though as mass-produced as they come, the items made by IKEA have simplicity and usefulness. Clean lines, sturdiness – and there is always a face, a real person, behind each weird name, each angular shape.). Since there’s already not much art in our lives these days, maybe we should replace it with crafts?

I first encountered the Arts and Crafts movement principle in fiction, of course. It was Carol Goodman’s The Drowning Tree, with its heroine, a stained glass artist, and its ghosts, Augustus Penrose and his wife Eugenie, who carried out a diversified artistic enterprise – from stained glass, through furniture design, to tapestry. And then, just recently, I read A.S. Byatt’s The Children Book, in which not the person of Olive Wellwood, a writer, inspired me, but the potters, jewellery makers and puppeteers who constituted a background for her.

I’m finding that these days, there’s not much encouragement for artistic expression in a manner of Arts and Crafts movement. Landscape design that we can afford for our backyards doesn’t try to blend the garden in – there is often no landscape left to blend into anymore anyway. With all the stainless steel around, there’s no need for pottery (unless strictly ornamental, and even such would stick out too much). Even my artistic and sensitive husband wouldn’t welcome a tablecloth lovingly embroidered with my own little hands! The solution is to fake professionalism – to make arts and crafts endeavours look mass-produced (brings to mind some of the Arts and Crafts designers who sold their soul to the devil of industrialism and decided to use machines to increase their output, but then made sure to include some fake tool marks in the final stage of production to give the objects the appearance of being hand-made). I wonder whether Arts and Crafts theorists would appreciate the irony.

The book by Elizabeth Cumming and Wendy Kaplan is a very good introduction to the Arts and Crafts Movement. Even the chapters about architecture held my attention (from all artistic endeavours, architecture is the least interesting to me. It’s hard to get really into something that can’t be done without years of specialized education.). This book brought it to me – and made me see the arts and crafts principles in my own world (from my room to my neighbourhood), even if it’s mostly their absence that I notice. I enjoyed everything but the cover (a painting of a living room design by Joseph Maria Olbrich).