So I didn't make it...

Well I didn't make the magic 52 books in a year mark. I could have, but I found myself counting pages, and looking at the size of books, and wondering if I read 5 of Shakespeare's plays in a weekend whether that would count or not. That wasn't the goal of this whole adventure, so I took a step back, and read what I wanted to read. This however turned out to mean that I started another 10 or 15 books and never finished them. I read much more widely perhaps, but with less depth. So I find myself reading Proust, The Oxford Shakespeare - The Complete Sonnets and Poems, Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher, some Popper, a collection of Rilke Poems, re-reading The Odyssey, a selection of Shakespeare's plays, some of Aristotle's works and the list goes on.

A few people have commented here or emailed me privately while I was doing this, and I didn't expect that either. That was a nice touch.

The plan for next year (starting in 2 days time) is to read 100+ books in a year, with one important distinction - I'm not going to count them (well I might, but I won't be fanatical about it). It's just going to be a voracious quest for knowledge swamped by a torrent of words and a symphony of ideas. The idea of 'number' has shown itself to be entirely too complex :)

Thanks for reading the blog, and with this final post, Adieu.

[Exeunt]

42. Proust and Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit - Samuel Beckett

I'm reading Swann's Way at the moment. This essay by Beckett (written when he was 25) is a brilliant interpretation of what Proust is doing in À la recherche du temps perdu.

The three dialogues towards the end of the book are between Samuel Beckett and Georges Duthuit and discuss the art of Pierre Tal-Coat, André Masson, Bram van Velde. Beckett's take is strikingly familiar if you've read much of him before. Beautiful beautiful stuff of course.

The reading just keeps on getting better; like some kind of tropism towards.. what? Surely it has to stop somewhere...

40. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

I found it really cool to read this book as I was just discovering parts of London myself. Woolf is brilliant. She uses her stream of consciousness technique to delve into the lives of several characters, and discusses social classes, mental health, creativity, relationships, the role of the woman in early 20th century London etc etc. It's beautifully and powerfully written.

38. Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche never ceases to amaze me. He ranks as one of the best writers I've read. "Beyond Good and Evil" is no exception. I highly recommend gettin this intaya!

36. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

Not too shabby. Good read. Nothing on Ulysses.

33. Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

This one belongs on the "Books I'll read again and again" bookshelf - next to Ulysses :D Brilliant! I'll come back to this and re-read once I've read more Nietzsche. Absolutely beautiful writing.

35. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language - Melvyn Bragg

Galloping good read! Very enjoyable tour of the evolution of the language we call "English".

Fertile, rich background info here. Lots of good mulchy knowledge to feed roots into other areas of philology, etymology etc.

5. Ulysses - James Joyce

Well, you can tell by the number on this one that I started this much earlier in the year. In fact I started it twice (this year). It proved to be quite a challenge to get through. But I've finished it, and it seems like such an accomplishment in some ways.

I've left my initial thoughts below - at the bottom of this post (quoted). It'll probably take me a while to get my thoughts together on this one. I don't think I've ever been stretched by a book like this one. I was talking about it to a friend the other day, and I ended up saying "I wouldn't recommend anyone read it, but I'd recommend that everyone read it!". Maybe it's brought the Irish out in me? :D

A couple of favourite quotes:

BLOOM: (Meaningfully dropping his voice) I confess I'm teapot with curiosity to find out whether some person's something is a little teapot at present.

MRS BREEN: (Gushingly) Tremendously teapot! London's teapot and I'm simply teapot all over me. (She rubs sides with him.) After the parlour mystery games and the crackers from the tree we sat on the staircase ottoman. Under the mistletoe. Two is company.

Crazy stuff. Almost nonsensical. Some sections are *truly* challenging though (this not being an example of such). But the episode this is taken from is difficult (not to mention the enormous vocabulary employed throughout)...


But you come across gems like this:

What spectacle confronted them when they, first the host, then the guest emerged silently, doubly dark, from obscurity by a passage from the rere of the house into the penumbra of the garden?

The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.

Haha. See?


Towards the end of the book especially around Episode 15 Circe, and Episode 17 Ithica, I was pretty convinced I might throw the book against the nearest wall upon completion. But when I came to the last page, and after my eyes had run off the last sentence and had stopped jittering around the page I just put it down and said something as unoriginal as "O.K.". I was almost shaking to read the last page. I don't know how I feel now. I feel a bit depressed I think.

Anyway, I'll have to put more into this post. The book is so worthy. It's a book that is contemporaneously the most dull and the most vivid and beautiful thing I've tried to wrap my mind around. I think it's amazing and beautiful and incredible and worth gushing over.


Nascent thoughts not long after starting it at the end of January (the first time).

"An invaluable resource in trying to get the most out of "Ulysses" by James Joyce.

The language and breadth of writing techniques in this book in unparalleled in anything I've ever read, and am likely to read in the future (I should think).

It's all thoroughly overwhelming, and would probably take a year of study to appreciate properly, and even then you'd be living with gaps."

32. The Pillowman - Martin McDonagh

Not bad. Not sure it's earth shattering, but it's a good read. I'm sure watching the play in person would be better.

31. The Aunt's Story - Patrick White

I picked this up to read because in some sense I'm skittering after Scott and following some of the things he's interested in, and partly because I've always been interested in reading White, ever since, and before, I bought David Marr's biography of him for Mum as a Christmas present perhaps 10 years ago.

This is a fear inducing novel. White writes with such an overpowering insight and originality it's almost grotesque. He must have been some kind of monster. I had to put this book down several times whilst reading it because I feared for my sanity. His message is almost too much. In hindsight I don't know if I was ready for it. I can't imagine any single human being living through life with this kind of outlook and not being utterly mad or monstrous. I'm not even going to try and use words like 'depth' or 'nuance' or 'humanism' to describe it. I'll simply say the character portrayal and associated mental landscape is almost insane. Insane because it's so new for me, and because I've not plumbed anywhere near the depths that White has. I can't put a shape around it. It's difficult to describe. I think his books may be as dangerous and corrupting (ala life changing) as "The Picture of Dorian Grey" by Oscar Wilde was for me. Scott mentioned that you learn from White like you do from Brodkey. He's right, and I'd say White is even more powerful than Brodkey. Certainly there is an even greater fear (of the unknown) in reading him. My stomach feels like a cage of butterflies to even think of reading another of his works.

"The Aunt's Story" is devastating..

Update: I wrote this ages ago - not sure if I agree with it anymore.

30. Henry Miller on Writing - Henry Miller

Brilliant. Please read this.

29. A Little History of The World - E. H. Gombrich

Brilliant narrative whirlwind tour of the history of the "world". Has inspired me to start Europe: A History by Norman Davies. God knows how long it will take to finish this, but I have a feeling I'm going to learn a *lot* and remember perhaps 5% of it :D

Read Gombrich's "little history". Read it out loud in the bath. Read it to your girlfriend. You won't regret it!

28. Oedipus the King - Sophocles

Distinctly more detailed settings than Aeschylus. Sophocles writes with more character dialogue. More emphasis is placed on putting the play in a historical context. I think I prefer the roughly hewn mythology of Aeschylus. I find Aeschylus' language more powerful too :) Really good fun regardless.

27. Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus

Brilliant. As gory as the rest - great mythology in here too.

26. The Furies - Aeschylus

25. The Libation-Bearers - Aeschylus

24. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics - Immanuel Kant

As I told Scottioso - "I can't believe someone tried to do this and I can't believe no-one told me that someone has tried to do this!" All this despite the fact that he probably did.

I'm pretty excited about Kant. He totally overshadows Hume and Descartes (for example) in rigor and detail. Kant very rarely, unlike many philosophers before him, relies on arguments based on authority, or even worse, some kind of dogmatic theism. I'm also checking out the "Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy" with the aim of jumping across the chasm to some kind of tossy enlightenment and "The Critique of Pure Reason". Wowsers. This is as good as I've found philosophy to get so far.

23. Discourse on Method - Rene Descartes

22. Agamemnon - Aeschylus

21. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume

20. Crito - Plato

19. Phædo - Plato

18. The Apology - Plato

17. Fruits of Solitude - William Penn

Delivered as a series of somewhat preachy, but overall, sincerely edifying platitudes, Penn presents many ideas, which meditated upon, must almost definitely lead to a deep wisdom and understanding of human nature and it's condition.

16. Journal - John Woolman

The most spiritual account of anyone's thoughts or actions I think I've ever read. Woolman's unremitting and unrelenting desire to do what he believes is "God's work" is very impressive, to say the least. His fundamental contribution in raising awareness as to the inhumanity of the slave trade in the early 18th century in America is beautiful and uplifting.

15. His Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin

Inspirational, but preachy towards the end. Too self-aggrandising in places. Very interesting history, and sketch of the mid 18th century as well as something like a guidebook to social success.

14. The Unnamable - Samuel Beckett

Let me introduce this book with the following.

I should mention before going any further, any further on, that I say aporia without knowing what it means. Can one be ephectic otherwise than unawares? I don't know. With the yeses and noes it is different, they will come back to me as I go along and now, like a bird, to shit on them all without exception. The fact would seem to be, if in my situation one may speak of facts, not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also, which is even more interesting, but also that I, which is if possible even more interesting, that I shall have to, I forget, no matter.

I think this quote from the book leads nicely into what "The Unnamable" was for me. Samuel Beckett is the man. The entire book is an aporia.

How about this.

I add this, to be on the safe side. These things I say, and shall say, if I can, are no longer, or are not yet, or never were, or never will be, or if they were, if they are, if they will be, were not here, are not here, will not be here, but elsewhere. But I am here. So I am obliged to add this. I who am here, who cannot speak, cannot think, and who must speak, and therefore perhaps think a little, cannot in relation only to me who am here, to here where I am, but can a little, sufficiently, I don't know how, unimportant, in relation to me who was elsewhere, who shall be elsewhere, and to those places where I was, where I shall be.

Or this.

But my good-will at certain moments is such, and my longing to have floundered however briefly, however feebly, in the great life torrent streaming from the earliest protozoa to the very latest humans, that I, no, parenthesis unfinished. I'll begin again. My family.

Juicy.

13. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

This is a brilliant book. I'm getting suspicious about all these amazing books I'm reading. Perhaps they're not and I simply have no taste, or suffer from some literary affliction akin to memory confabulation.

Regardless - this book seethes with wit and ardour and hopelessly incisive humour.

I would like to quote the highlights, but it'd be like showing the highlights of world record breaking 100m sprint. I'd have to show the whole thing.

Here's a small tasting plate though:

'Did that really happen? said Maggie White. She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies. Men looked at her and wanted to fill her up with babies right away. She hadn't even had one baby yet. She used birth control.

'Of course it happened,' Trout told her. 'If I wrote something that hadn't really happened, and I tried to sell it, I could go to jail. That's fraud.'

Maggie believed him. 'I'd never thought about that before.'

'Think about it now'.

Or

Billy told her what had happened to the buildings that used to form cliffs around the stockyards. They had collapsed. Their wood had been consumed, and their stones had crashed down, had tumbled against one another until they locked at last in low and graceful curves.

'It was like the moon', said Billy Pilgrim.

Or

Listen - on the tenth night the peg was pulled out of the hasp on Billy's boxcar door, and the door was opened. Billy Pilgrim was lying at an angle on the corner-brace, self-crucified, holding himself there with a blue and ivory claw hooked over the sill of the ventilator. Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton. This law tells us that for every action there is a reaction which is equal and opposite in direction.

This can be useful in rocketry.

Or

Billy left his room, went down the slow elevator, walked over to Times Square, looked into the window of a tawdry bookstore. In the window were hundreds of books about fucking and buggery and murder, and a street guide to New York City, and a model of the Statue of Liberty with a thermometer on it. Also in the window, speckled with soot and fly shit, were four paperback novels by Billy's friend, Kilgore Trout.

The news of the day, meanwhile, was being written in a ribbon of lights on a building to Billy's back. The window reflected the news. It was about power and sports and anger and death. So it goes.

Billy went into the bookstore.

Very stylish. Maybe too clever or preachy? Anyway, everyone should read this. Takes less than a day.

12. Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics - Immanuel Kant

I've started his Big Bastard of a Book, but this was great. Gave me some solid background on his ideas and theories before trying to excavate deeper.

11. Studies in Pessimism - Arthur Schopenhauer

9. Confessions of a Philosopher - Bryan Magee

Brilliant. Inquisitive. Passionate. It may turn out that this book has singlehandedly reignited my interest in philosophy. How do I explain the impact this book has had on me?

Throughout "Confessions of a Philosopher", Bryan Magee shows the reader that philosophy is very much a living and breathing activity devoted to the understanding of why we are here, and what it all means. From the beginning of the book, which is autobiographical in method (not message), he shows how he has struggled all his life with deep philosophical questions. He takes the reader from his childhood through to the time of writing (around 1997), and gives them an overview of how he has ceaselessly and tirelessly tried to pursue an understanding for what he calls the big philosophical problems. In the process we learn much about his life and his time spent studying history and philosophy at Oxford and Yale.

The stories he tells about his personal relationships with some of modern philosophy's big names, Karl Popper, Bertrand Russell, and his interaction with philosophers residing in England at the time is fascinating. There is something deeply inspiring about hearing how Karl Popper would reason or argue on a particular topic in his study with Magee. That kind of first person insight is thrilling. I can't understate how exciting it is to hear about the greats wrestling with the really big questions.

As someone with a science background it came as quite a shock to realise that I am essentially a modern day physicalist, materialist, realist and perhaps even to some extent a logical positivist/empiricist. Magee's discussion of arguments from Kant, Popper and Schopenhauer, and the way he illuminated their logical and rational progression has made me realise for the first time that perhaps science can't explain everything. I've studied over 3 years of physics and mathematics at university and more recently another 4 years of computer science, and I can safely say that this one book has made me start questioning my perspective on all the knowledge and understanding I've taken away from those studies. I realise that I might sound like a crackpot, and perhaps I am, but I'm trying to show how fundamentally challenging his arguments are. Of course I was familiar (and almost comfortable perhaps) with the idea that science doesn't provide pure or perfect truths but theories that are merely supported by huge amounts of evidence, however I've never been presented with good arguments for believing that there is a scope and limit to the way in which science can enlighten us about our universe and our position in it. It's a truly deep and "earth-shaking" situation for me to contemplate. It's incredibly exciting too. These are the kinds of insights I've pulled out of this book.

Magee also places a great emphasis on art as something which brings us closer to these questions (and potential avenues for answers) than perhaps anything else. His is a refreshingly whole-minded outlook in that regard. He agrees that he doesn't believe he can contribute much on this front, but makes some interesting points about the place of artistic creation and appreciation in our understanding of who we are are human beings and where we fit in our world.

I have a renewed respect for genuine philosophers who are doing everything they can to try and understand these things. Magee is at pains throughout this book to point out that philosophy isn't about the mental gymnastics of certain philosophical methods as a means to an end (such as analytic philosophy or linguistic analysis which he equates with the Oxford traditon of the time), but that real philosophy is rooted in experience and a deep and inviolate desire to understand it. I think he's right.

All in all, an inspirational, intellectually honest, humble and well written story. For me it might just turn out to be life changing.

8. Kuhn vs. Popper - Steven Fuller

This was a bit of random pickup. I think I was desperate to get into something vaguely "philosophical", and I don't know much about either Popper or Kuhn, so the idea was to get an interesting and thoughtful introduction to both of them. Unfortunately I'm not sure I got that with Steve Fuller's book - "Kuhn vs. Popper". Fuller is a sociologist who argues that creationism should be given a better chance against the "scientific dogmatism" he believes has become more popular. Uh huh. Why didn't I research him and this book before I bought it. I'm normally so good like that.

Anyway, he made some interesting points about Kuhn getting it all wrong and Popper being the guiding light despite the fact that Kuhn's critique of the scientific method is what he believes has been adopted in liberal intellectual circles. He may be right, but I have to say Kuhn's "paradigm shift" and "culturally specific" take on science isn't what I was taught at university. Admittedly I studied science in the Science rather than Arts faculty, but I'm not sure where that background to science is taught or consumed seriously.

I'll add more to this post after I gather my thoughts about this book. I have a niggling feeling it's valuable I just can't put my finger on it.

7. Malone Dies - Samuel Beckett

I absolutely loved "Malone Dies". It's been a while since I read "Molloy", and I'd almost forgotten what a genius Samuel Beckett is. The whole story seem quite rambling, and some people say there's barely a thread of storyline there, but I disagree. It was quite clear what was happening most of the time. In fact it was perhaps even more vivid for the extra care needed to read the book.

Some favourite quotes:

For his ear, which is on the same plane as the cheek or nearly, was glued to the earth in a way it seldom is in wet weather, and he could hear the kind of distant roar of the earth drinking and the sighing of soaked bowed grasses. The idea of punishment came to his mind, addicted it is true to that chimera and probably impressed by the posture of the body and the fingers clenched as though in torment. And without knowing exactly what his sin was he felt full well that living was not a sufficient atonement for it or that this atonement was in itself a sin, calling for more atonement, and so on, as if there could be anything but life, for the living.

There sprang up gradually between them a kind of intimacy which, at a given moment, led them to lie together and copulate as best they could. For given their age and scant experience of carnal love, it was only natural they should not succeed, at the first shot, in giving each other the impression they were made for each other. The spectacle was then offered of Macmann trying to bundle his sex into his partner's like a pillow into a pillow-slip, folding it in two and stuffing it in with his fingers. But far from losing heart they warmed to their work. And though both were completely impotent they finally succeeded, summoning to their aid all the resources of the skin, the mucus and the imagination, in striking from their dry and feeble clips a kind of sombre gratification.

One day, just as Macmann was getting used to being loved, though without as yet responding as he was subsequently to do, he thrust Moll's face away from his on the pretext of examining her ear-rings. But as she made to return to the charge he checked her again with the first words that came into his head, namely, Why two Christs?, implying that in his opinion one was more than sufficient. To which she made the absurd reply, Why two ears? But she obtained his forgiveness a moment later, saying, with a smile (she smiled at the least thing), Besides they are the thieves, Christ is in my mouth. Then parting her jaws and pulling down her blobber-lip she discovered, breaking with its solitary fang the monotony of the gums, a long yellow canine bared to the roots and carved, with the drill probably , to represent the celebrated sacrifice. With the forefinger of her free hand she fingered it. It's loose, she said, one of these fine mornings I'll wake up and find I've swallowed it, perhaps I should have it out. She let go her lip, which sprang back into place with a smack. This incident made a strong impression on Macmann and Moll rose with a bound in his affections.

Very fine book. Can't wait to read "The Unnamable". Apparently it's even more experimental :O

6. The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas - Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas' collection of love letters is an intensely personal look at this poets life. I remember first trying to read a book of Thomas' poems when I was about 10 years old. I'd found a copy of his poems in my Dad's bookshelf (he had several books by Thomas), and I tried to read through some of the poems. I remember not being able to understand most of them - the metaphorical language was too hard for to grasp, I even wondered at the time if it was meant to make sense, or if perhaps Mr Dylan Thomas was mad.

Anyway, his love letters are beautiful. The first few, written when he was younger are more forced and not as impressive language-wise. You definitely see a progression in him as a writer.

As a man he is fairly typical - trying to maintain as many relationships with as many beautiful women as he can at any one time. You end up feeling sad for him, as you read about how he's essentially drinking himself to death. It's also sad to see how much time and energy he expends worrying about reviews of his and other people's poetry. Much of it seems petty and needy. Indeed I think in his personal life he was quite a petty and needy man.

Not a bad read, but not as good as his poetry (and not supposed to be).

4. Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Ok - so it's a fairly complex story. I stumbled across a multimedia attempt to make sense of the characters and themes in this book. Worth a look - perhaps after you've read it :)

I was talking to Dutchy about this book the other day, and he asked me what I'd compare it to. I know this is banal and the phrase is overused but Bulgakov struck me as being quite Kafka-esque. Or is it more like Dickens, or Douglas Adams? I'm definitely not qualified to make a judgement on the matter, and I'm not going to support any statement I might make anyway.

By about halfway through this book I found that I wasn't believing a single thing that was being written. I was second-guessing the narrative and found myself questioning why this might be the case. It has to do with the way Bulgakov weaves his story. It's a thoroughly intriguing story, and there is so much sleight of hand and trickery you end up not committing to an interpretation of what is going on until as late as possible. This delayed decision process makes the appreciation of the book quite unique. I put ideas, and potential decisions on a stack and try and keep track of them, and tie them together when it's become clear that this can be done. But it's never terribly clear. It's a heinous book in that regard :D

The ending was very special. I finished the last 50 pages standing up in my kitchen reading directly under a ceiling light. Bulgakov finishes the book beautifully. It is a masterful and beautiful ending.

I can wholeheartedly agree, without reservation, that Bulgakov is a master writer of the highest order and that "Master and Margarita" is a timeless classic. This book deserves to be read several times in a lifetime.

The next reading project is a secret, because I probably won't finish the book I have in mind - but I'll be sure to blog about it here if I do.

3. Heart of a Dog - Mikhail Bulgakov

Bulgakov is funny. Quite the satirist. Really enjoyed this. Very simple language (taking into account that I read the translation by Michael Glenny). However the story was fantastic, and had me laughing out loud. I was lucky to temporarily have a Georgian (who speaks fluent Russian) flatting with me in Wellington and he was able to give me some solid background on the story (much needed).

Anyway, about to launch into his bigger novel - "The Master and Margarita". Having had a quick flick through it, it seems Bulgakov might flex his stylist muscles in this one.

2. Profane Friendship - Harold Brodkey

The language in this book is so inventive. I've honestly not read anything quite like it before. But it's hard going. At times I wanted to put the book down. The incessant detailing of complex relationships or emotions proved tiring. At times it became difficult to appreciate everything he was saying. The detail he puts into Onni! I can't imagine anyone analysing or thinking about someone with such excruciating depth. But he comes up with gems! Some of it reminded me of Henry Miller - perhaps not so much in style, but in boldness? Some quotes along the way:

At recess in school, taken on the roof of the palazzo the school occupied, he was wilful, he was drunk with will in play, largely serious and untalkative, and vivid in movement, and greatly interested in being who he was.

... Something in Onni's face, a fluctuation of something like a cloud of feeling or like a sheaf of the cold rain that comes and goes briefly in Venice sometimes around us in the shifting light, was the look of an inward scream phallically.

The sunlight shiftingly flickers among the movements of eyelashes, and the world rolls slightly in its customary Adriatic-afternoon fashion. One hears his vocal inflections - his trained vocal inflections.

The darkness of the interior of his mouth in the very hot early sun housed crows and blackbirds, croaking objurgations... I said, "Let's not pretend to talk... Let's pretend not to talk." Meaning that silence was talk anyway.

One thing I kept thinking through this book was that Brodkey is offering the reader insight. So much of what he says seems so deep, so valuable, that you know if you absorb it it will change you. He laces together metaphors, and images so wildly at odds with each other, but so oddly suited to the task that the effect is almost surgical. He is (in actuality - a favourite word of his in this book) modifying the way you think about and address situations and people. But this makes it pretty heavy. Great book - but I'm tired now.

On to no. 3 - "The Heart of a Dog" by Michail Bulgakov.

1. First Love & Other Sorrows - Harold Brodkey

Ok - so "Against the Day" didn't quite make the first book of 2008. I'm not overly impressed with Pynchon's writing and a good friend of mine lent me some Brodkey and that seemed like the thing to do. So "First Love & Other Sorrows" sits beside me read, and thoroughly enjoyed.

This is an early Brodkey - in fact his first published book, so I'm reserving my judgement until I've read the other work of his lent to me at the same time - "Profane Friendship". I'll say this though, there were a good number of gems in there, and a few "fuck off" moments, but the thing that's jiving with me is the way he describes relationships, especially the internal struggles, those deeply interpersonal awkward moments between friends and lovers. That is most impressive - the guy is deep. Gotta get me some more of that stuff.

Great book. On to no. 2 - "Profane Friendship" by Harold Brodkey.