Of all the books I talked about in May, I only finished three (that isn’t counting any of the books I read in May that I didn’t even mention in the post because I didn’t know I was going to read them!). Three’s not bad, really, but I hope I do better this month. I have a week’s vacation next week so that should help. I am not going anywhere and Bookman only gets about half the time off along with me, but that’s fine. Just having a whole week to garden and read and go do a few fun things will be great. And, oh, do I have a lot of books to choose from! But then when am I ever at a loss for anything to read?
I seem to have quite a bit of nonfiction on the go at the moment. Yes, I am still reading Why this world : a biography of Clarice Lispector, but I have made progress in it! Then there is The crisis of the European mind, 1680-1715 by Paul Hazard that I mentioned earlier this week. And Place and Placelessness by E. C. Relph.
There is also My backyard jungle : the adventures of an urban wildlife lover who turned his yard into habitat and learned to live with it by James Barilla. I thought I had squirrel trouble! This poor man planted a peach and nectarine tree in his garden only to have the squirrels strip the fruit completely off both trees even when the trees were covered in netting. The squirrels eating all my corn seeds and sprouts seems like nothing in comparison. Though I’ve never gotten any hazelnuts off my tree because the squirrels get them all first. I’m not pleased by that but it isn’t quite so bad as not getting any peaches or nectarines especially when you’ve spent months watching them ripen and imagined picking them ripe from the tree, so fat and juicy. There are few things as perfect as a fresh picked peach in my opinion so did I ever feel for the author.
So what is that? Four nonfiction books? To balance them out I’ve got two books of poetry on the go, Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds and The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas. But neither of these are books I sit down with and read for a long period of time. They are, at most, half an hour reads which allows the poems to sink in and rattle around in my brain a bit.
Fiction, fiction is a bit lacking in comparison. Just this afternoon I finished reading New Grub Street by George Gissing. I hope to post on that soon. And that’s all the fiction I’m in the middle of. But don’t worry, I’ve just begun part four of Margaret Atwood’s serial novel, Positron. It’s an ebook only and it is ok so far. As a serial, I don’t think it works all that well. There is too much time in between installments for it to be really satisfying in that way. But it is an interesting experiment nonetheless.
Waiting in the wings is The Archivist by Martha Cooley. It’s about a librarian responsible for taking care of T.S. Eliot letters and a poet who comes looking for them. This seems like it might be great vacation reading next week. That’s the plan for it. And then, I hope to also get to May’s NYRB Classic subscription book, Transit by Anna Seghers. I saw it described somewhere as reminiscent of Kafka. And since Positron won’t take long to read on my Kindle I will have to figure out what book to start on it next. I’m thinking it might be Tristram Shandy, but we’ll see what my mood is in a week or so. When it comes down to it I might completely change my mind and go for something by Hardy instead or even David Copperfield by Dickens. The possibilities are many!
Thank you for the heads-up about that Atwood project. I clicked on the link and read about it. I just love her writing, in general, and [dinosaur that I am] I just wish this was available in actual book format — the kind made of paper and all.
If you change your mind and read either of these last suggestions, you can’t go wrong. Thomas Hardy is just amazing, and Copperfield is still my favorite Dickens ever!
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I enjoy the way in which you so obviously relish all those good books to come! Very interested to read what you made of New Grub Street.
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Ian, it is such a pleasure to know I have good things to read! New Grub Street was surprising in many ways. I liked it, but goodness, not what I expected!
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Cirpriano, you bet! Maybe eventually Positron will be available in print. Atwood is doing it as one of her many digital experiments. The great thing about whether I go for Tristram Shandy or Copperfield or something by Hardy is that I know they will all be good!
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I love nonfiction but one at a time (can you believe that considering how I pick up and start books at the drop of a hat) is usually plenty for me. I am reading that book on the Elizabethan world and it is so chock full of information I will never remember half of it, but am enjoying it anyway. Those naughty squirrels–I should read My Backyard Jungle–I can relate as squirrels were finding their way into my attic and I could hear them up there (just above my bedroom!) squeaking away. It was awful. I think I found the entrance they were using and have had it covered over–fingers crossed that will take care of the problem. Good luck keeping them out of your garden!!
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Danielle, I don’t usually have so much nonfiction going at once but it seems this year it is a trend. You might not want to read My Backyard Jungle, I just finished a chapter in which he had rats in his walls! Thank goodness I’ve never had squirrels get into my house. I hope you have managed to seal them off from returning to your attic!
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I just added up my reading for the year… woefully little. But I console myself that I have been doing other things with my time, like watching documentaries and gardening and going out and things like that. I feel about ready for some non-fiction although I have a HUGE stack of fiction at the ready! Actually, come to think of it, I’m reading some non-fiction right now but because it’s about the Dadaists and Surrealists, it feels like fiction…
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wherethereisjoy, as long as you h ave been enjoying what you have been doing instead of reading, that’s what matters! Heh, a book about the Dadaists and Surrealists would seem a little like fiction 😉
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I actually have The Archivist by Martha Cooley sitting on my TBR shelves – it’s been there for several years.
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Diane, I just heard about the book recently, I can’t remember where, but it was published in 1998 or 99 around there. I hope it’s good!
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Ah just think of all the hours you’ll have to read next week while you are on vacation! I read The Archivist so long ago. Unfortunately I don’t remember much. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
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Iliana, I know! I am looking forward to that. I hope you not remembering much about the Archivist isn’t a sign that it’s just so-so. Guess I will find out soon enough!
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I’m quite envious of your upcoming vacation with plentiful gardening and reading time. But I am consoled because when you vacation, we can look forward to more rich and insightful posts. Tristram Shandy is on my ‘Someday I’ll Get Around To It’ list so I am happy that you are considering it for next week.
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Vanessa, oh, the pressure to produce! LOL 😉 Tristram Shandy got tossed to the side for a book I had forgotten about, the love letters of Dorothy Osborne. After that, Sterne will get his turn.
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No hurry. I have a backlog myself 🙂
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