Recent Reads
This year, I have kept some notes on each of the books I could finish reading. Available here.
So far in the year - lots of fiction, some contemporary, some time-honored. Many new authors, some previously known. Some essays, notes and stories, a couple of longform non-fiction books too. Most loved reads were Salka Valka and Tess of D'Urbervilles. (as of now, this I think). Some interesting surprises/ books to recco were Sky Burial and Maestro. And glad that I could read The Great Derangement and Development as Freedom.
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Bookmarks/ Curently reading
I thought it would be a good time to list the current bookmarks. Not every book I begin reading I finish. Perhaps only a few of them reach the 'recent reads' page. But a lot many are opened, explored, attempted.
A few open books at the moment:
- Soul at the White Heat by Joyce Carol Oates. My library recently reorganised the literature bookshelf, and it was like turning over soil. Some books that I'm used to seeing at certain places got a new place and new neighbors in a way. Turned up overlooked stuff. One of them was this. I had read about the book on a blog, and I think I had earlier read an essay or two from the book. Still early pages but glad that I found this one. This book is meant to be read with a pen and a notebook. So much to note down, reflect on, look up further, and think about. So much to be inspired by, so much to imbibe.
- Self Portraits by Osamu Dazai. Vivid, drawing you in writing. But may not be always positive. Sometimes very touching though. Midway somewhere.
- The World Ending Fire by Wendell Berry. This is a selection of some of his best essays. I have read his poems, and like the drift of his thoughts. But reading a complete book of essays is still somewhat beyond my ken I guess. I am still in the earlier essays of the book. Again, like the thoughts and the poems, but the essays are not Emerson or Thoreau. So if you are looking for a similar spirit, perhaps them are better choice. But for the idea of marginal farms, and sustainable existence, Berry's thoughts. And I guess his poetry is something else, serene, calm, tranquil.
- Antony & Cleopatra by Shakespeare. In my new attempt of reading/ rereading 10 Shakespeare plays in a 1000 days, this one is the first. I have a simple book without many notes, but partway I realise I do not really understand everything. So have borrowed a heavily annotated version from the library to guide me. One feels very different reading Shakespeare vs reading everything else. A level apart of thought, wisdom and language.
- The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley. Been with a bookmark for a while. Whenever I read an essay from the book, I do not wish to read anything else. But then other things beckon until I get in deep another essay. It sends me on reveries about time, space, existence, life, being, itself a meditative journey of the mind.
- Pleasure of Thinking by Wang Xiaobo. His notes & essays on many things. From reading and writing to things he has gone through while China goes through Cultural Revolution. There is the world that we live in where there is freedom of thought. And then there is the world where there is no access to books, writing, where the world has been narrowed down artificially, and instead there's indoctrination. In such truncated world, from such truncated world, the author reports on the pleasure of thinking. The joys we take for granted, he had to fight with circumstances to retain - that space to think and be which his country took away from many.
There are a few others. I am still knocking on a few fiction doors, yet to see which one lets me in. Left off Old Curiosity Shop midway. Trying to pick up Our Mutual Friend.
Have been reading short stories meanwhile - from Maugham (cue a south sea island trip), to James Salter (reminds me of Cheever and Carver's world. People and their relations. People and the immediate world. People and People), to Natalia Ginzburg (The Little Virtues - poignant pieces), to Mr Tulsi's Store (stories from and on Fiji).
This is very much a snapshot of the day or the hour, changes every week until I pick a book or a book picks me.
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On writings on readings (and criticism and appreciation and reviews)
Just a short note to mark my appreciation of all those readers who read and write about their readings, either as a blog, or as a formal review or a much deeper engagement as a literary critic. I really enjoy such writing.
I hope people keep writing and sharing about the books they read. It sounds random written like this, but I am thinking more on the lines of Harold Bloom, and thinking of the act of appreciation of a book, and how perhaps it is like a seed which eventually flowers in another head. Thinking also of Rilke and how he says we do justice only when we praise, or something like that.
One is simply glad to come across writers who read and write about their reading. Those who can do it well, open up worlds for their readers. Because if one reads slowly like me, one is glad to be introduced to the richness in those books even if one is not able to attempt the reading in this lifetime. What with the time on Earth only so much, and the books to read so many...! People who write about their readings, share their worldview, their thoughts, and the book itself unfolds in a new light in their hands. For both, books read and those yet to be read, I guess one is fortunate to find good reviews, good criticism. It is as if, a meta channel opens up, a space which only the book could unlock, which it raises the thought to, and in that opened up space, the writer unfolds themselves and the thoughts that the book triggers. Sometimes it is a book one has read, sometimes, it is just any book, or any book one would like to read, but that unlocked space is quite ethereal, quite sublime, rich and deep.
There are a host of places like the New Yorker, Paris Review, some parts of accessible NYRB and LRB, and then some people - James Wood, William Giraldi, Joyce Carol Oates, and a host of other writer readers who reflect on their reading. Reading their reviews is a double treat. One, you get to read a good piece of writing, an essay maybe, and second, you get to know about a new book or a previously read book and add to your TBR. There are so many books about books that are themselves a little treasure trove. And then books on the act of reading. There are many people who share this pleasure of reading about reading. Hope to keep reading the writers on books and their reading!
Here's to reading and writing.