Reading list for February 2005
This month's reading was dominated by lightweight pleasures, balancing the heavy and thought-intensive work of translating my database into English. "Vinyl Cafe Diaries" was probably the best of the lot, though "My family..." was the funniest. "Geri Weibel" is a collection of pieces which previously appeared weekly in the Neue Züricher Zeitung, and is another example of writing which should not be read en bloc: Taken in weekly installments, the pieces were surely very funny, and one would have had considerable sympathy for poor Geri's (self-made) predicament; in book form, you want to give him a shake and a good talking to.
The Koran is absolutely fascinating, as well as being (in this translation) a fine piece of literature, it reads very well. Even the titles of the surahs are like an unusually obscure haiku:
Thunder
The Night Journey
Pilgrimage
That Which Is Coming
He Frowned
The Nightly Visitant
The Declining Day
Oneness
Daybreak
I shall be writing about this at length next month.
Currently reading
The Koran in English, translated by N.J.Dawood
Karl May, Die Sklavenkarawane in German
Previously read
Gerald Durrell, My family and other animals again, after many years
Willliam Gibson, Idoru again
Petra Hammesfahr, Roberts Schwester in German
James Hilton, Lost Horizon again, after many years
Stuart McLean, Vinyl Cafe Diaries
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash again
Martin Suter, Richtig leben mit Geri Weibel in German
Paul Virilio, Art and Fear
Next month's list
Last month's list
Labels: reading
posted by Udge @ 16:48
5 Comments:
I love that Gerald Durrell! His depiction of his siblings was so loving and hilarious. And that taxi driver. I read it about 20 years ago and actually went to his zoo on that Channel island in 1986 and got him to autograph my copy.
Would like to hear what you think of Art & Fear, and what it's like. I have War & Cinema somewhere in my attic.
Udge:
Germans are still reading Karl May? Should I be surprised at that? Maybe I should read some too!
^ That's my husband. Half my family is reading you,udge!
"Art and Fear" was disappointing: hysterical, repetitive, unconvincing. The book (Continuum paperback) as artifact was also remarkably ugly: boldface, italic, ALL CAPS, thrown together on the same page. I find the translation dubious in places, but must admit that my French is no longer good enough to read Virilio in the original. I think Virilio is too big for his britches, and could have benefited here from a good, firm-handed editor.
A great pity, because the condition he wishes to decry is real and worth decrying: "the sleep of empathy gives birth to monsters", to misquote Goya.
Karl May is still very much alive, amazon.de finds 1273 (!) books under his name. Every German boy (and most girls) know and love the stories of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. That's actually one of the few things that East and West Germany had in common.
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