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Virgil

My 2014 Reads

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Hi all

I haven't been on in a while. I think I last mentioned we had a new pup in the family, and she has been a handful. I don't remember my other pups driving us crazy like this one. So since my wife was with her all day, I had to give up part of my evenings to releave her and stay with the dog. Evenings after work is my usual computer time, and there was no way this pooch was going to let me be.

Then just after Christmas my computer went bonkers and after looking into it, I decided to get a new one. So that took more computer time away from me. I finally decided to buy a new one, but new one came with Windows 8.1 as operating system, and boy is that different than Windows 7. So it took me a few weeks to learn that. It's actually pretty cool once you learn the ins and outs.

Mixed in there is also work in January coming to a mini crises and required more attention from my personal home time and some travel away as well. It seems to happen every January. We have the lull during December holidays and then everything comes to a head in January.

Still I had a decent year reading. Here's the list, but if you want an expository summary of my 2014 reading year, go to my personal blog post., here.

My 2014 reads

“The Doom of the Griffiths,” a short story by Elizabeth Gaskell.
The Book of Tobit, a book of the Old Testament.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter,” a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Life on the Mississippi, a memoir by Mark Twain.
The Book of Judith, a book of the Old Testament.
“The Ransom of Red Chief,” a short story by O. Henry.
Washington Square, a novel by Henry James.
84, Charing Cross Road, a collection of correspondence by Helene Hanff.
“Fifty Grand,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“A Simple Enquiry,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“The Pitcher,” a short story by Andre Debus.
“After Twenty Years,” a short story by O. Henry.
Happy Catholic, a non-fiction devotional by Julie Davis.
The Imitation of Christ, a non-fiction devotional by Thomas à Kempis.
“Paul’s Case,” a short story by Willa Cather.
Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity, a non-fiction work of literary criticism by Prue Shaw.
The Book of Esther, a book of the Old Testament.
“Wee Willie Winkie,” a short story by Rudyard Kipling.
Fantine, the 1st Volume of Les Misérables, a novel by Victor Hugo.
“The Peach Stone,” a short story by Paul Horgan.
Some Do Not…, the 1st novel of the Parade’s End Tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford.
First Book of Maccabees, a book of the Old Testament.
“Ten Indians, a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“The Wood-Sprite,” a short story by Vladimir Nabokov.
The Shining, a novel by Stephan King.
How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization, a non-fiction work of sociology by Mary Eberstadt.
Second Book of Maccabees, a book of the Old Testament.
The Thorny Grace of It: And Other Essays for Imperfect Catholics, a collection of personal essays by Brian Doyle.
“Russian Spoken Here,” a short story by Vladimir Nabokov.
“Greenleaf,” a short story by Flannery O’Connor.
"Sredni Vashtar,” a short story by Saki (H.H. Munro).
“The Gift of Cochise,” a short story by Louis L’Amour.
“A Canary for One,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“The Drums of the Fore and Aft,” a short story by Rudyard Kipling.
The Priest and the Prostitute, a novel by Victor S E Moubarak.
“The Gentleman from Cracow,” a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Style: an Anti-Textbook, a non-fiction book on writing by Richard A. Lanham.
Gerard Manly Hopkins: Poems and Prose, Selected and Edited by W. H. Gardner.
“Colorado,” a short story by Ann Beattie.
“A Scandal in Bohemia,” a Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“The Queer Feet,” a Father Brown mystery short story by G. K. Chesterton.
“Jacob’s Ladder,” a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“The Letter to the Romans,” an epistle by St. Paul. NAB and KJV Translations.
“The Walk with Elizanne,” a short story by John Updike.
The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.
Mansfield Park, a novel by Jane Austen.
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Comments

  1. NikolaiI's Avatar
    Bonkers computers are never fun. Interesting list - Rappaccini's Daughter is a great short story. "Rosemary" by Grateful Dead is based off it.
  2. Pierre Menard's Avatar
    Great list, Virgil!

    I also really enjoyed reading your longer more expository blog post. You read a lot of great short stories by the looks of it; I've read a lot of Bashevis Singer over the last couple years and he's always great. I also think Nabokov is a very underrated short story writer.
  3. Virgil's Avatar
    Thank you Pierre. Yes, Singer is one of the greatest. I'm going to go through Nabokov's complete stories and I will find out for myself. I do realize he's one of the top prose stylists of his day. And he wrote in multiple languages.

    Nice to meet you.
  4. Virgil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NikolaiI
    Bonkers computers are never fun. Interesting list - Rappaccini's Daughter is a great short story. "Rosemary" by Grateful Dead is based off it.
    I didn't know that. I'll have to check my ipod to see if I have that song. It doesn't ring a bell. If I don't I'll have to buy it. Thanks.
  5. Dark Muse's Avatar
    How did you like The Tempest? It is one of my personal favorites of Shakespeare.

    Also noticed you read a couple of O Henry stories. I am interested in his works. I have read a couple of his stories which I quite enjoyed and have a short story collection of his which I haven't read yet.
  6. Virgil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dark Muse
    How did you like The Tempest? It is one of my personal favorites of Shakespeare.

    Also noticed you read a couple of O Henry stories. I am interested in his works. I have read a couple of his stories which I quite enjoyed and have a short story collection of his which I haven't read yet.
    Oh I loved The Tempest. Here's what I said in my summary:

    "For a drama I reread Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a sort of personal reevaluation. I’ve felt it a somewhat overrated work. But I take that back. Now that I fully understand its totality, it is a great work. It’s one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, which makes it feel like it lacks a bit of gravitas. But that’s just a superficial perception. I do want to post on it because I have a thought about it that might not be as widely considered."

    I hope to write a post on it at some point. I'll try to remember to send you the link when I do.

    I've read a number of O Henry short stories through the years. He's such a natural story teller with a fluid prose style. He can be overly simple at times but when he's on, he captures humanity very well. His well known stories are definitely worth reading. I posted an analysis of "The Ransom of Red Chief." You can read it here.