Death of a Reading List

It isn't because I don't want to complete it; nor is it because I find it to be a chore (as many people who dislike reading lists claim).  There are reasons I cannot explain here, but I have been to the doctor and the words "acute" and "chronic" were used several times.  Due to this, I had to make a decision: whether to continue both my reading list and my research work, or, as the doctor recommended, choose to do only one.  I have decided to work on my research project because I strongly believe it will prove more edifying in the long run.

I will continue posting here, both about the research and also about the one book I have selected to read for pleasure: "The Stories of John Cheever."  I will be doing this with a sharp eye to the craft and technique of one of the greatest (but under-rated) writers of the 20th Century.  There will be some sporadic work on the typing of my numerous Moleskine notebooks (far too personal to publish here).

Reading List for 2011 (Subject to Change)

This year I had one hell of a time trying to keep track of all I've read. It was around this time in 2009 that I decided I was not going to have a reading list for 2010. What a great mistake that was! Whether or not reading lists are a popular form of keeping track, I find it I do much more reading when I have at least a provisional idea of what is ahead of me in the coming year. As a result, I have returned to the Reading List, and here's a provisional list (in no particular order) for 2011.

"Never Let Me Go" -- Ishiguro.

"The Corrections" -- Franzen.

"The Portrait of a Lady" (re-read) -- James.

"Journal of a Novel" (re-read) -- Steinbeck.

"Things are Never So Bad" -- Dubus.

"The Art of the Personal Essay" -- Lopate.

"Eichmann in Jerusalem" -- Arendt.

"Exile's Return" -- Cowley.

"The Plague" -- Camus.

"Classics for Pleasure" -- Dirda.

"The Spooky Art" -- Mailer.

"In Patagonia" -- Chatwin.

"A Tranquil Star" -- Levi.

"I, Claudius" -- Graves.

"The Stories of John Cheever" (re-read) -- Cheever.

"Portrait of Dr. Gachet" -- Saltzman.

"Proust Was a Neuroscientist" -- Lehrer.

"The Piano Tuner" -- Mason.

"Run With the Hunted" -- Buckowski.

"Motherless Brooklyn" -- Lethem.

"The Enchantment of Lili Dahl" -- Husdtvend.

"Consider the Lobster" -- Foster Wallace.

Of course there might be some "spillage" from 2010 into (at least) a few weeks of January 2011. Of these the most obvious would be "The Diaries of Christopher Isherwood" part 2. and "Sunset Park" by Paul Auster. All in all, I am very satisfied with this prospect list. Since I will be spending more and more time in my office at home, I think the number and selection will prove to be both enjoyable and productive.

I know I've said before that my ultimate plan after leaving the classroom was to read all 12 volumes of "The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant, but the effort seems quite monumental to begin with. I need a couple of years to adapt to the idea that I am actually having the time to do it now.

Reading List for 2010

This is the time of the year when I collect the titles I want to read during the New Year. Due to the many unpredictable situations I am currently involved in, I am sorry (or glad) to say that there will be no reading list for this blog during the year of our Lord, 2010. Instead of the "list" regiment, I am going about reading the same way that my life has become a jumbled mess: I will read unpredictably, randomly and even chaotically whatever falls in front of me. I do have some reviews I need to get to, but for the most part I am just going to attack my wall of books haphazardly.

Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" and Descriptive Journal Writing

Alexandra Johnson's "Leaving a Trace" is a very good book about journaling. I read it in one single day at the end of last year and determined that I needed to follow much of her advice to learn how to describe better. Her most insightful idea is to write journal entries without using the first person pronoun. I've actually tried this with my students and they absolutely hate it. The trick is not to allow yourself to then address yourself in the third person; that too seems to invalidate the whole writing exercise. So, I've plucked at the idea for a week now and made little progress here and there. It's interesting and for as difficult as I find it, I am learning a great deal.
A re-reading of Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" always yields a great deal of wisdom, especially at the very start of the year. For this reason, I decided to begin "The Year of Living Philosophically" with this very excellent, short and amazing little book. I've only re-read the first part of the book (the first Six Books), and I've already underlined things I'd never noticed before that I could use to live a more healthy life. Here are some keepers:

"... not to be led astray into a passion for rhetoric... or play the ascetic or the benefactor in a manner calculated to impress... to be easily recalled to my usual frame of mind, and to be easily reconciled as soon as they [those who have angered me] are willing to make a move in my direction... To be a beneficient, and ready to forgive, and free from guile; to give the impression of being a man who never deviates from what is right rather than of one who has to be kept on the right path... sobriety in all things, and firmness, and never a trace of vulgarity or lust for novelty... At every hour devote yourself in a resolute spirit, as suits a Roman and a man, to fulfilling the task in hand with scrupulous and unaffected dignity, and love of others, and independence and justice; and grant yourself a respite from all other preoccupations... Let your every action, word and thought be those of one who could depart from life at any moment... What then is worthy of our striving? This alone, a mind governed by justice, deeds directed to the common good, words that never lie, and a disposition that welcomes all that comes to pass, as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from a like origin and spring..."

Certainly, I could go on forever and ever, as the entire volume is filled with these thoughts. Perhaps that is a lesson well-learned in these times we are living presently: to seek and want less and less of that which holds us chained to consumerism and materialism. Another great example for this, of course, is Thoreau. I've learned a great deal from this re-read, and, at least for now, I've been able to do something I hadn't been able to do before: slow down.

Reading List 2009 -- Written in Stone

Well, the "Frequency of Silence" Reading List for 2009 is now complete. I am going to set in stone the 2009 titles. I've decided not to add any or replace any of the titles by other books throughout the year. Aside from the philosophical twist, I am going to read voraciously about writing techniques. I am doing so because I think it will help me with my teaching and to develop new methods to help my students. The effort for 2009 is then a two-fold (or a two-prong approach): Teach myself to think philosophically again and not obsessively, and teach myself how to be a better teacher to my students. Here's the list: 2009!

After finishing NaNoWriMo for 2008 I always give myself a little treat. Just like last year, my treat for December is to take it easy, write for leisure rather than a word count and read my favorite "silly-little-book" entitled "A Movable Feast," by Ernest Hemingway. It's a book about Hemingway's young days living in the Paris expatriate artist community that included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, etc. The book is more fiction than fact--as most Hemingway non-fiction is--but it is an inspiring book for any aspiring writer (as long as she or he can keep from laughing at the exaggerated facts). For example, while conversing with Ford Madox Ford, Hemingway states that they saw Aleister Crowley cross the street (or something to that effect). It's been widely catalogued as a lie since, but it is interesting and entertaining as hell. It was in this book that I first learned about Jules Pascin and he fast became one of my favorite artists. Also, there are some fabulous "Hemingway at his best" passages like this one:

With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected it to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason.In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.

There are way too many things happening right now in my life, and that's the reason why I haven't been able to write as much as I wanted before, or even finish putting together my reading list for 2009. I am hoping to go back to the gym the rest of the month. The rest of this month will determine whether or not I will begin my year on the right foot. A few more pages from Hemingway and then I'll leave it at that.

The Rest of The Year...

I've already written about how I am way behind on my word count. Well, I think I've learned to work staying just within sight, slightly under the radar of where I should be today, Saturday, November 22. Here's my little graph... I am proud of my improvement today.

December is the month to make literary plans. As November is drawing to an end, and another edition of NaNoWriMo about to be wrapped up for good, I am already thinking about my annual December ritual: the 2009 Reading List. I know I didn't do a very good job with the 2008 reading list; it sort of got out of hand due to responsibilities at the Academy. Work was especially demanding this year, and my trip to China also created havoc on my reading schedule. Having said that, I think the 2009 Reading List will be sort of holistic, organic, do-it-yourself, granola-based and freestylish in its composition and content. Sort of the "read as you go" and "pick a theme and knock yourself out" type of thing. I will first finish those books I've already started, though, and those will count for next year's list.

The Death of a Reading List...

It isn't time to give up yet. That's not what I am referring to at all. But the truth is that I must resign to the fact that I have only read 10 books this year, as opposed to previous years when I averaged 30 by mid-May. "The Emperor's Children," a book I took to China with me thinking I was going to be finished with it by the time I got there after the 18 hour flight, is still very much in my hand, perhaps for the rest of the month. Because of the lack of time I continue to only take "baby steps" from chapter to chapter of Messud's divine masterpiece. My goal this year was to read classics, and while I am still sticking to some of the titles, I am revising the list some time this coming weekend to represent titles I intend to substitute. I can't count the number of people who have told me--at one time or another--that reading is not about lists or the number of books you can read in one year, but I beg to differ. If you look at my past years' reading lists (HERE), you'll be able to tell how far behind I am this year. Regardless, I am still reading some "chunklers," such as "The Pickwick Papers," and "Foucault's Pendulum."

"The Emperor's Children" has been a marvel to read. Finally, in the middle chapters, the tension between Murray Thwaite and Danielle reaches the climax Messud intended all along. While it is difficult to imagine the elder "intellectual" Thwaite in bed with Danielle, Messud uses a mixture of descriptive and metaphorical language that makes it passable. Danielle is indeed one of those young women highly impressed with any signs of a "big brain" or intellectual capacity. I knew some women like that in college (none of whom dated me, of course)--they enjoyed conversation more than looks and as a result gravitated towards the intellectual types. Murray's daughter (Marina) doesn't realize what's going on, and despite being Danielle's best friend, she cannot decipher the bed of lies her friend and her father occupy. Marina, of course, has taken a turn for the best, finally finishing her long over-due book, and starting a "romance" that seemingly will culminate in marriage to an Australian named Ludovic Seeley. The complications extend to the other characters, Julius (the token gay friend) and "Bootie" Tubb, Marina's cousin who has moved to New York to "make" it as a writer. More to follow.

Today in class we screened the film "Finding Forrester." I plan on showing this film in class prior to any big writing assignment (but only once a semester). My students were happy for the break, knowing little that a great writing lesson was upon them. If you listen closely, I pointed out to them, you'll take away a great deal of excellent writing advice. That is the rationale behind showing the film. At any rate, there's a scene where Sean Connery tells the protagonist, Jamal Wallace (played by Rob Brown): "Write a 5,000 word essay on why you should stay the f*** out of my place!" My students immediately pointed out that it is impossible to do so overnight. To which, of course, I offered to do... so now I have a 5,000 word assignment on why I should stay the f*** out of Mr. William Forrester's (fictional seclusive writer) place of residence. I may post it here so you can laugh at the amazing non-sequitorial nonsense I write.

2007: Looking back, James Wright and New Reading List

Many of the events of this passing year are now long behind me. I say that because despite a pretty active November (NaNoWriMo), the second part of the year moved slow, as if not wanting to jump off that inevitable cliff called December. The highlight of my summer, of course, was the visit by Eugene and Ilse Dumolin. I worked very hard this past summer too, something I am trying to break the habit of doing. It's not that I am not going to work at all, but I learned this year that a lot of preparation doesn't mean less work later on during the semester. At any rate, that is done and it is now irreparable and incommunicable.

"The Selected Letters of James Wright" continue to drip out of the covers of that book like sweet honey. Wright is a master poet, and without repeating myself too much I don't want anyone arguing that point with me unless, of course, you are a Wright scholar of some sort. Otherwise, we have nothing to argue about. This man's brilliance is without comparison. To struggle and write like he did is nothing short of a blessed miracle. Here he takes account of his ongoing bout with depression:

"The illness is strange--I tried to describe it to you in one of my earliest letters to you. It is that catathymic depression again, but this time it has come very close to crippling me to the point of really blocking off any ability to function at all.... I have been getting the shuddering horrors, indescribably so, and frequently going to pieces, sometimes in really mad and violent ways.... I see less and less reason for bothering with anything. Anything at all. I know I am too tangled in the wrong kind of life ever to get out of it. I just wish I could forget the despair.... You know, sometimes I try to escape the thought, but it returns and returns and returns: that some day I shall rise at morning and simply walk outside and away, leaving everything behind, like Buddha."

Wright's ability to write despite this ongoing bout with depression is something I will never be able to understand. In 1959, this man was at the height of publishing, writing essays for critical analysis, etc., all the while suffering from a paralyzing depression. If that doesn't cure the most stoic among us, I don't know what will. His letters have been a source of comfort to me throughtout most of this year. I have read them very carefully, taking my time and seeing in them the succor any writer needs when in doubt of the writing process. I still have over 150 pages to go and I am taking it slow, savoring every word from this genius. While I've only posted from the letters, pretty soon, (perhaps in 2008) I will post from the "Selected Poems," a book which has won my admiration because 1) the letters, and 2) its capacity for wonder and awe.

What's interesting about admiring a person for their genius is that one ends up remembering things that otherwise would just slip between our intellectual radars. I have a deep appreciation and admiration for George Washington. I think it began in middle school. A couple of days ago I was thinking about Washington's crossing of the Delaware river to go attack the Hessian mercenaries stationed at Trenton, New Jersey during the War for Independence. I was driving to the store around 9 AM when I remembered that that very same morning, December 26th in 1776, around that very same time, Washington was attacking the Hessians into what would be the turning point of the war. Washington has a special place in my heart. Don't ask me why, but I appreciate his tenacity and his unwillingness to give up or surrender the cause. If you ask me, that's the kind of president we need right now.... so vote George Washington in 2008.

I decided a while back to only read "Classics" this coming year. While the gesture was an honest one, I started having second thoughts because I find it very limiting; specially when my eyes and hands simply cannot or do not want to stay put in one specific genre. I am certainly not giving up entirely on the classics; think of it, I am reading titles it never even crossed my mind to read (for example, Charles Dicken's "The Pickwick Papers"). The list doesn't seem overwhelming in terms of numbers (there's only 23 books on the list right now), but the majority of them are "kilometric" titles (Tolstoy's "War and Peace"). Seeing that I still have much work to go on "The Silence of This Wall," before June 2008, I will say that the list is ambitious for the amount of time I might have. Of course, I will be timing it so as to take advantage of things like, my upcoming trip to China in April (nothing beats 14 hours of non-stop reading--believe me, I've done it twice coming and going to Japan). At any rate, here's the official picture for the 2008 Reading List: LIST

December is the cruelest month...

Not really, but since I am not going to (in all likeness) be able to finish my reading list this year (by four books), I now declare December a hostile month. Just kidding. I know T.S. Eliot had more to say about April than I have to say about December, so I'll leave it at that. I have been reading "On Bullshit," by Harry G. Frankfurt. The volume is a quick read through an intensely high discoursed theory on why is there so much bullshit in the world. It may or may not be humorous to some, but the fact that one can tell its "tongue in cheek" suaveness is a real treat. Prof. Frankfurt aims to answer "what is it, what it does and why is there so much of it." I have been touch and go in my reading of this, but I should be done before the week is out.

Since I have so much to do before "The Silence of this Wall" comes out in print, my reading list for the year 2008 is rather limited in scope. I will be reading "classics" primarily, but I have added some re-reads to the list because I feel they are essential to my growth as a writer. One of these is a beautifully, mint-condition, first printing of Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." If you have never read it, I can only describe it as magical. It is really one of the most fantastic and well-written books in the world (no exaggeration, as the NYT once said about "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "This book should be required reading for the entire human race."). My love for "Foucault's Pendulum" grew out of a road-trip I had with a very wealthy friend who, while being in college, had a $85,000 car. We took his BMW all the way to Washington, DC all the while listening to Tim Currey masterfully reading it in Audio Book (here is a sample reading). I was hooked immediately. If you have read that book by a guy named Dan Brown, then you'll know where all those accusations of plagiarism came from if you read "Foucault's Pendulum." At any rate, that and some other "classics" will be my reading list for next year: some Dickens, more Brontes, Tolstoy, etc.

Stack O'Books...

Here's the ever-evolving stack

The Know-Nothing...

The more I read, the more I realize how little I know. I said I was not going to comment on "The God Delusion" because this is not a forum for my personal views about religion. I only have to say that there is something absolutely seductive about scientific proof against religion. It's as if we want to say, "yes, of course... why didn't I think of this before!" But the truth of the matter is that no one really knows. Science could be wrong, and holy books as well. It's been tough going with "The God Delusion" but I am almost done with it.

Going along with the religious reading challenge, I have decided to make some time on my 2007 Reading List for Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses." I might not get to it very soon, but I will definitely make some time for it. Somehow I ended up with a first edition print from 1988. I have no idea how I came about it but it was probably one of those massive book sales I used to frequent.

As soon as I am done with my present read, I will be delving into some Indian fiction/non-fiction with books by Chandra, Mishra and Upahyay (whom I happen to know personally). Of course, I have to go back to Joan Didion probably this summer. I have been meaning to look for an accessible novel by her husband, but I've come empty handed in my last searches.

I go back to the academy tomorrow after 10 days of holiday. I really think it is time to go back. By the way, my running project is not by any means over. I just got a really bad case of tendinitis on my left knee and it's even hard to walk at times. As soon as it heals I will be back to catch up on some of my running mileage.