Mid-August. A short note.
- A lot of Yasunari Kawabata. I may not agree at times with his characters or may not like certain aspects, but the beauty his book evokes is so breathtaking, so otherworldly realms that worldly constructs, worldly morality, practical ideas seem to just fall away or dissolve. I feel that with Leonard Cohen's writing too, whose another novel hoping to read.
- Generally a lot from Japan and interestingly India too. Perhaps distance enough now to enjoy fiction from India. Or perhaps these books are still set in past, so generally enough distance to read objectively. (Whether one can do that ever is a question, wonder, reminder and practice).
- A trip to Japan late last year helped me back into these reading challenges, and generally a wider set of books helps. Books get more books somehow, so here I am, 42 books in the year so far. A lot more opened or are still open. By and by :)
- Some of the books are really small ones. So, not really any overall goal that I have, just like the idea of finishing a beautiful read. And the count helps at times.
- This morning I finished reading Pilgrim of the Clouds by Yuan Hung-tao. It is similar to Hojoki and Dewdrops on an autumn leaf both of which I read earlier this year but waiting to read again before I enter them on finished books list. Also, similar to Basho's. In terms of the general atmosphere evoked by these books. To reread or read more from Basho too.
- Patrick White, Halldor Laxness and Ivo Andric - New discovered joys. Had read Voss earlier but Tree of Man is a book apart. All these authors, hope to keep reading more from.
- Books like Independent People, Tree of Man, Harvest - loved reading these almost myth-making tales.
- Another one that I loved a lot was Three Cornered World by Natsume Soseki. Read late last year after Japan trip. Book acquired in Japan. Tried to find that atmosphere again in his other books, but no, three-cornered world is singular.
- Keen to read Mishima's Sea of Fertility. But in Part 2, there is a mini novel in the novel itself which somehow loses me again and again. Yet again I'll try.
- So many open at the moment, and so many so many so many more on reading wishlist. But as Ben Okri writes before he begins his Last gift of master artist - Read slowly. :)
2025 (Jan - mid August)
- Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima (SS)
- The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata
- Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (The Sea of Fertility - Part 1)
- Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reumn (A day well spent is a life well lived)
- The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric (loved it *)
- Kokoro by Soseki Natsume
- A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi
- Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
- What You Are Looking for is in The Library by Michiko Aoyama (explore unfamiliar aisles)
- The Islands by Albert Alberts (SS)
- Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas by Ruskin Bond (NF/Memoir/ Personal Essays)
- A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr (loved it *)
- Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai (novella)
- Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati
- The Body - 10 Things You Should Know by Dr Darragh Ennis
- A Haiku Journey - Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province - translated by Dorothy Britton
- Independent People by Halldor Laxness (loved it *)
- Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks (NF/ Journal)
- Consolations of the Forest (Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga) by Sylvain Tesson
- Reading & Writing - A Personal Account by V. S. Naipaul (Personal essay)
- Things That Are, Essays by Amy Leach (Refreshing, interesting)
- The Pole and Other Stories by J. M. Coetzee (SS)
- Kim by Rudyard Kipling (loved it *)
- Naag Mountain by Manisha Anjali (Prose poems)
- A Way to be Free by Ben Okri (Essays)
- The Guide by R K Narayan
- The Tree of Man by Patrick White (love the writing *)
- Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgaard (lecture)
- A Time for New Dreams by Ben Okri (Essays)
- Dandelions by Yasunari Kawabata (his last, unfinished novel but then it is Kawabata, which is never really finished)
- Three Early Stories by J. D. Salinger (SS)
- Christos Tsiolkas on Patrick White (Writers on Writers)
- Divine and Human and other stories by Leo Tolstoy (SS)
- Foe by J. M. Coetzee
- Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
- Harvest by Jean Giono (in conversation with Independent People and The Tree of Man)
- Devotion by Patti Smith
- Ceridwen Dovey on J.M. Coetzee (Writers on Writers)
- The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata
- Pilgrim of the Clouds by Yuan Hung-tao (translated by Jonathan Chaves. Poems and Essa