Virgil

2009 Reads

The Death of Virgil, a novel by Hermann Broch.
The Last Lecture, an autobiographical memoir by Randy Pausch.
The New York Trilogy: “City of Glass,” “Ghosts,” and “The Locked Room,” three novellas by Paul Auster.
My Sister—Life, a collection of poetry by Boris Pasternak.
Exodus from the Old Testament, KJV.
Style and Statement, a non-fiction work on writing by Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connors.
“Richard II” a play by William Shakespeare.
“The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
“Soldier’s Home,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
“Mr. and Mrs. Eliot,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
Kim, a novel by Rudyard Kipling
“Icicles,” a short story by William H. Gass.
Always Now: The Collected Poems, Vol. III, a collection of poetry by Margaret Avison.
“Wintry Peacock,” a short story by D.H. Lawrence.
The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought, a work of non-fiction by Jerry Z. Muller.
Kazakhstan: The Bradt Travel Guide, a travel book by Paul Brummell.
“The Man with the Blue Guitar,” an extended poem by Wallace Stevens.
The Maltese Falcon a novel by Dashiell Hammett.
“The End of Something,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
The Stream and the Sapphire, a collection of poetry by Denise Levertov.
The Gospel of John from the New Testament, KJV & NAB versions.
Lavinia, a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The Aeneid, an epic by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles.
Persuasion, a novel by Jane Austen.
“Why Do Heathens Rage?” a short story by Flannery O’Connor.
The Story of the Shakers, a work of non-fiction by Flo Morse.
Grendel, a novel by John Gardner.
“That Evening Sun.” a short story by William Faulkner.
“Amy Forster,” a short story by Joseph Conrad.
“The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale,” a short story by Alan Sillitoe.
“Cat in the Rain,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
“Spotted Horses,” a short novel by William Faulkner.
Almost Catholic: An Appreciation of the History, Practice, and Mystery of Ancient Faith
a work of non-fiction by Jon Sweeney.
“A Winter’s Tale,” a play by William Shakespeare.
“The German Refugee,” a short story by Bernard Malamud.
“The Turn of the Screw,” a short novel by Henry James.

That's my list for 2009. It looks long, but there are quite a number of short stories in there. And as I said last year, I pick short stories apart as if they were poems. But I did get into a short story kick this year, and it may conitune on into the coming year as well. Short stoies are very different forms from the novel, though they both involve story telling. I had decided to slowly read the complete Hemingway, and as you can see i made some head way. I don't want to read them straight through, and perhaps by the end of the next decade, I may get through them Out of the Hemingway stories, "Soldier's Home" is a true classic and highly recommended. Only one lawrence short story this year. I guess out Lawrence short story group was not very active this year. Janine is falling down on the job. Of all the short stories, Faulkner's "That Evening Sun" is the finest of all I read this year, though Lawrence's "Wintry Peacock" is a top notch story as well. I had wanting to read something by Gass for a long time;he's got the reputation of being one of the premier prose stylist in English. I picked "Icicles" to read and was very impressed. Also impressive in the short story form were Flannary O'Connor and Bernard Malamud. I intend to seek out more of their stories.

I said this last year as a statement of priciple toward my reading: "My philosophy in reading selection is to vary and sample different eras and different cultures. However, it's not a very regimented approach and ever since I've been on lit net it's more inclined to be impulsive than not." I didn't do very well in reading works not originally written in English. Only three fit that catagory: The Death of Virgil, Pasternak's poetry collection, and Virgil's Aeneid. This was the second year in a row I read Fagles' translation of The Aeneid and was my only read from the classical era. I never did finish Broch's The Death of Virgil. I'm afraid it was one of the worse novels I've ever read, and for the life of me I cannot understand it's eminence in some circles.

Kim and Grendel were the two outstanding novels I read this year. Kim is way under rated as a 20th century classic and should definitely be included in the literary canon, and Grendel was a brilliant find, recommended by Jozanny here on lit net. Pusuassion was good, but not great, and The Maltese Falcon was fun.

A number of short novels are on the list. I only read the first two of Auster's The New York Triology, and really enjoyed them. I meant to read the third, but after setting aside the book for a bt, I couldn't find where I placed it when I went to take it back up. It's buried somewhere in my book stacks. If i find it I'll read it. "The Turn of the Screw" is a true classic and a must read; "Spotted Horses" was not up to the typical Faulkner greatness, though average Faulkner is better than most. Conrad's "Amy Forster" (borderline between a long short story and a short novel) was a let down. I had expected a classic, and did not think so.

I was not able to read an unread Shakespeare. Both Richard II and The Winter's Tale were re-reads, and so I did not make any progress in my pursuit of reading all of Shakespeare's opus. I remain having read 24 of the 38 plays. I did make progress in reading the books of the Bible, reading Exodus from the Old testament and The Gospel of St. John from the New. John's Gospel I read in both the King James and the New American translations, almost side by side, and i've concluded I'm not a big proponent of the KJV. This has nothing to do with any theology, but strictly from a language point of view. I'd rather read in the clarity of a good modern translation than in the heightened prose that never really existed, albeit at times poetic. I had promised Nossa to read something from The Koran this year, but unfortunately I let that slip, mostly because Nossa disappeared and other reads kept coming up. I do intend to read a portion of it this coming year.

Four works of poetry are on the list, three collections and Steven's long poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar." Stevens and Pasternak are great works, worthy of their reputations, Levertoff turned out to be a great find, and Avison was a bit of a let down.

Finally this year was spent with a number non-fiction works, more so I think than in the recent past. The Mind and the Market took up a good part of the year and was an excellent work. It's a review of how capitalism bas been perceived and philosophically understood from the Enlightment to current day. I was quite amazed to find what a capitalist Voltaire was and how perceptive a German sociologist named Georg Simmel in understanding the nature of living in the modern world, and of course how Adam Smith is among the most important thinkers in western history. The Last Lecture was a memoir of an engineer (worked for Disney among others) and a teacher who was given less than a year to live after having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It's a good read, though sad. I took up a work on writing (Style and Statement), which is one of my favorite subjects, and I intend to read one every year. It sharpens the writing, even if it's a repeat of what one already knows. A travel book on Kazakhstan is in there, since I intend to travel there this year, and after visiting a preserved Shaker village while on vacation in Massechusttes, I bought a historical account of this unconventional religious sect that was extensive in the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. And finally I read Almost Catholic, a perspective of Catholicism from a protestant point of view. I had been having discussions (I wasn't debating but they probably were) with a number of protestants on a different interent forum and I was shocked at their understanding of Catholicism and at times outright bigotry. So I wanted to try to understand how they viewed Catholicism and this book came up. An interesting read, though not exactly what I had been looking for.

So that's my list for this past year. I need to spread out into novels from different cultures than English and American for the next year. I think it's time I retook up Dostoevsky and try Fifth's recommendation of Cees Nooteboom and perhaps try something from German literature. I had also wanted to reread Lawrence's The Rainbow but never did. I will see if Janine will finally want to get a Lawrence group together for that one.