All About Books discussion

LOL! My stamina is equally feeble. ;)

February:

National book award
The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren ✓

One book from my TBR
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ✓

Zola Project
none for February

Two books I already own
'The Man With the Golden Arm' by Nelson Algren ✓
The Grass Harp by Truman Capote ✓

Poetry
Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts ✓

(total: 4/4)

The words 'none for February' for the Zola project fills me with a slight feeling of exaltation!

LOL, are you starting to get tired of our French Naturalist? I sure hope the next one compensates for the last!!

On my last book for the February bit of the challenge:
The Grass Harp by Truman Capote

Just finished The Grass Harp by Capote which was a lovely way to end the February portion of the challenge.

March:

National book award
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty

One book from my TBR
The Third Man by Graham Greene ✓

Zola Project
His Excellency (Son Excellence Eugène Rougon) by Zola ✓

Two books I already own
The Spire by William Golding ✓
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty

Poetry
a potential bonus collection to be decided on spontaniously

(total: 3/4)

Will take a bit more time with Eudora Welty's Collected Stories. I realize reading one whenever I feel like it makes me enjoy them much more than reading them as I would read a novel, so I'll bring this one with me into April.

This is what April will look like:

National book award
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty ✓
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison ✓

One book from my TBR
Independent People by Halldór Laxness ✓

Two books I already own
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking ✓
Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes ✓

Zola Project
none for April

Philosophy Project
Discourse on Method by René Descartes ✓
Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes ✓

Poetry
Selected Poems by Robert Frost ✓

(total: 6/6)

And here is May

National book award
none

One book from my TBR
Vertigo by W.G. Sebald ✓

Two books I already own
Stoner by John Edward Williams ✓
The Drinking Den by Émile Zola ✓

Zola Project
The Drinking Den by Émile Zola ✓

Philosophy Project
Vom Schnee by Durs Grünbein

Poetry
Vom Schnee by Durs Grünbein


(total: 4/4)

June:

National Book Award
The Round House by Louise Erdrich ✓

One book from my TBR
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (TBR) ✓

Two books I already own
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (OWN) ✓
Gedichte by Günter Eich (OWN) ✓

Zola Project
none

Philosophy Project
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain by Antonio R. Damasio ✓

Poetry
Gedichte by Günter Eich ✓
Return to my Native Land by Aimé Césaire ✓

(total: 6/6)

I realize I have been fairly sloppy in documenting my challenge.

While I have loosened my tie to the NBA part of the challenge (others would say 'given up on' ;)) I am turning into a bit of an over-achiever on the poetry portion, though July was lived without poetry. While reading books I actually already own...well there's room for improvement shall we say, I am half cheating my way through this one (I might have on occasion, like this month...well...counted a book I BOUGHT one day prior to starting to read it..erm).

here are the last few months:

July:

National Book Award
none

one book from my TBR
Between Friends by Amos Oz✓

Two books I already own
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent ✓
The Collector by John Fowles✓

Zola Project
A Love Episode by Émile Zola ✓


Philosophy Project
none

Poetry
none

(total: 3/3)

August:

National Book Award
none

one book from my TBR
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov ✓

Two books I already own
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald ✓
....erm.....

Zola Project
none

Philosophy Project
none

Poetry
And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2013 by Samuel Hazo (poetry) ✓

(total: 3/4)

September:

National Book Award
none

one book from my TBR
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf ✓

Two books I already own
Kruso by Lutz Seiler ✓
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ✓
Speedboat by Renata Adler (extra to make up for August) ✓

Zola Project
Nana ✓

Philosophy Project
Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Poetry
The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight ✓
A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa (poetry)✓

(total:7/8)

How did you like Things Fall Apart, Jenny?

I really liked it Leslie, in fact I am playing with the idea of reading the rest of the trilogy too. Are you? It's like a gate to another world and culture sort of 5 minutes before it started crumbling for good, but it's without sentimental glorification of folklore or simplifications of facts. Very well written and very reflective I thought.

Jenny wrote: "I really liked it Leslie, in fact I am playing with the idea of reading the rest of the trilogy too. Are you? It's like a gate to another world and culture sort of 5 minutes before it started crumb..."

I liked the way the story was so simple on the surface but so much was going on underneath. I may read the rest of the trilogy sometime but not right now. Too many books on my plate as it is!

I like the way you put that Leslie, "so simple on the surface .. but so much going on underneath." I felt that way as well. It was also very affecting without having to deliberately try to be affecting. This truth of the situation spoke for itself without the need for histrionics. I quite like the book.

Jenny and Leslie, have either of you read the play Death and the King's Horseman: A Play? Another African piece about a society just as it crumbles. The style is a bit unusual (and off-putting to some), but I liked it a lot.

I haven't Greg, but you are the third person to mention it now so on my list it goes ;)

I haven't read that play either, Greg. In fact, my reading of African literature is pretty pathetic (something that I am slowly trying to remedy).

Leslie wrote: "I haven't read that play either, Greg. In fact, my reading of African literature is pretty pathetic (something that I am slowly trying to remedy)."

And I'm noy doing a good work in remeding either!

October:

National Book Award
none

one book from my TBR
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch ✓

Two books I already own
One Day a Year 1960-2000 by Christa Wolf (own)✓
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada ✓

Zola Project
none

Philosophy Project
continuing Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Poetry
Soy Realidad by Tomaž Šalamun ✓

(total:4/5)

November:

National Book Award
none

one book from my TBR
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame

Two books I already own
Pensées by Blaise Pascal
The Infatuations by Javier Marías


Zola Project
Pot-Bouille

Philosophy Project
Blaise Pascal - Biographie eine Genies by Jacques Attali


Poetry
November Boughs by Walt Whitman
Medic Against Bomb: A Doctor's Poetry of War by Frederick Foote

(total:0/7)