Sunday Salon

Additions To My Library

1. The Annotated Lolita by V. Nabokov


2. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Recommended by Bookgasm and on the bargain table at Borders.)


3. On Chesil Beach by I. McEwan (For Seconds Challenge.)


4. Snow Country by Y. Kawabata (For Japanese Lit. Challenge.)


5. Silk by A. Baricco (Recommended by someone on Marginal Revolution's The best books under 100 pages. I have read An Iliad, so I could read it for the Seconds Challenge.)


6. The Arabian Nights transl. by Husain Haddawy

Finished Reading This Week

1. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by S. Squire


2. Reading the OED by A. Shea


3. 300 by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley


4. Flaubert's Parrot by J. Barnes

Currently Reading
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. I just started this today as a follow-up to Amon Shea's book Reading the OED. I have also listened to a lecture by Mr. Winchester on this very topic and found it very interesting.

Challenges Update

The What's In A Name Challenge:

1. A book with an animal in its title: Throne of the Eagle (done)


2. A book with a first name in its title: The Lais of Marie de France (done)


3. A book with a place in its title: Amsterdam (done)


4. A book with a weather event in its title: Atmospheric Disturbances (done)


5. A Book with a color in its title: White Noise by Don DeLillo (done)


6. A book with a plant in its title: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (I have been waiting for the library to deliver it.)

I have also started the Man Booker Challenge (six Man Booker winners, short/long listed):

1. The Sea by John Bainville -- Winner 2005 (done)


2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell -- Short List 2004 (done)


3. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes -- Short List 1984 (done)


4. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan -- Winner 1998 (done)


5. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood -- Winner 2000


6. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch -- Winner 1978

The Seconds Challenge

I had a tentative list of the books I wanted to read for this challenge:

1. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan


2. Black Swan by Nassim Taleb


3. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton


4. Number9Dream by David Mitchell

But I might substitute any of the following in:

• The History of the World in 10 1/2 Books by J. Barnes


• Silk by A. Baricco


• Dearly Devoted Dexter by J. Lindsay


• Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde


• The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

The Japanese Lit Challenge 2

I don't quite know what to read for this, maybe:

1. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata


2. After Dark by Haruki Murakami


3. Something by Kirino or Mishima

Reading the OED by Ammon Shea

What an extraordinarily entertaining book. It is full of wonderful words:

Advesperate (v.) To approach evening.

Balter (v.) To dance clumsily..
It's nice to find a word I can use to explain why I've always hated to dance. I am a balterer. [Me too!]

... some of which are quite funny:

Fard (v.) To paint the face with cosmetics, so as to hide blemishes.
I suspect there is a reason no one ever gets up from the table and says, "Excuse me while I go to the ladies' room and fard." It seems to be very difficult to make a four-letter word that begins with f sound like an activity that is polite to discuss at the dinner table.

Unbepissed (adj.) Not having been urinated on; unwet with urine.
Who ever thought there was an actual need for such a word? Is it possible that at some time there was such a profusion of things that had been urinated on that there was a pressing need to distinguish those that had not?

There are also some hilarious anecdotes about reading such a gigantic book. For example, after finding that reading the OED ten hours a day for months has caused his eyesight to deteriorate, he relents and gets eyeglasses.

When I get back to the library and resume reading I immediately realize why people wear these silly little things -- they make your vision better. I no longer have to move my face closer or farther from the page depending on whether I am reading the definition or the etymology. The headaches do not go away, but they become less severe, And at the end of the day I do not have large patches of gray imposing themselves on my peripheral vision. I am considerably cheered by this improvement, and wish that I could get glasses for all the other parts of my body that don't work as well.

If you enjoy reading, books, or language, run, don't walk, to get this book from your local library or bookstore. I highly recommend it!

4.75/5

I Don't: A Contrarian View Of Marriage by Susan Squire

This book is a rambling history of the idea of marriage from prehistory to Luther and the Reformation. At times it was witty, but overall, I feel a little disappointed with it. While some might find it's chatty style endearing, I found that it detracted from the attempt at historical scholarship (which may not have been the author's intent anyway). In addition, I found that the sudden halt at Luther and the Reformation left me wanting a more complete treatment of the subject. Perhaps at least following the topic into the 20th century. That being said, it was still a very entertaining book. I always like a book with notes and a bibliography and hope to be able to pursue the topic by reading some of the books Squire cites.

2.75/5

Sunday Salon

Additions To My Library

1. Number9Dream by David Mitchell


2. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire (reviewed in The Week)

Finished Reading This Week

1. The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow: see last week's Sunday Salon for a review.


2. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen: A very interesting book all the way to the end. However, it was quite quirky, almost to the point of strange. 3.75/5


3. Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir transl. from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder: A mystery novel that was quite good. The Icelandic element added a touch of the exotic. However, either due to things lost in translation or poor translation, the prose and dialog seemed clumsy at times. But, I am looking forward to when they publish her next book in English. 4.00/5


4. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan: Really good. A compelling enough read that I finished it in one day. As one of the blurb on the cover said: "darkly comic". 4.25/5

Currently Reading
I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. I started it in the book store and want to finish it as soon as possible. The intro and first chapter a quite amusing at times. I look forward to the rest of Squire's scathing commentary on the patriarchal idea of marriage.

Challenges Update

The What's In A Name Challenge:

1. A book with an animal in its title: Throne of the Eagle (done)


2. A book with a first name in its title: The Lais of Marie de France (done)


3. A book with a place in its title: Amsterdam (done)


4. A book with a weather event in its title: Atmospheric Disturbances (done)


5. A Book with a color in its title: White Noise by Don DeLillo (done)


6. A book with a plant in its title: ???

I have also started the Man Booker Challenge (six Man Booker winners, short/long listed):

1. The Sea by John Bainville (done)


2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (done)


3. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (done)


4. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood


5. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch


6. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

The Seconds Challenge

I have a tentative list of the books I want to read for this challenge:

1. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan


2. Black Swan by Nassim Taleb


3. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton


4. Number9Dream by David Mitchell

The Japanese Lit Challenge 2

I don't quite know what to read for this, maybe:

1. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata


2. Something by Murakami


3. Something by Kirino

Sunday Salon

Adding to My Library

Okay ... this week I went on a book bender. I went to the Half Price Books on Friday here is Sugar Land and today my family dropped me off to look at one in Houston. This resulted in the purchase of:

1. More Sex Is Safer Sex by Steven Landsburg. This is an econ. book that argues that against intuitive common sense on certain issues, much in the same manner as Freakonomics. It joins another of his books, The Armchair Economist (unread), already in my library.


2. A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis by David M. Friedman. Okay, okay, it was a spur of the moment buy, but promises to be interesting at the very least.


3. A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel. To join the other Manguel books I own.


4. Sir Gawain & the Green Knight transl. by W. S. Merwin. I have read this and wanted a copy for a while.


5. Out of Control by Kevin Kelly.


6. Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott. A book of trivial facts. Fascinating. I couldn't stop reading it while I waited for my family to return to pick me up.

Currently Reading

Currently I am in the process of reading a popular book on statistics, The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, and the novel Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen. Both are library books. I am just about done with The Drunkard's Walk. It is good, but nothing special. It seems to go over the same ground as other books on statistics that I have read, e.g. Chance by Aczel or Chances Are ... by the Kaplans. I have just started Atmospheric Disturbances so I will reserve judgment at this time.

Challenges Update

I am new to this whole challenge thing, just have discovered them in the last couple months. Even though I didn't know about the challenges, I keep track of the books I have read in the last couple of years, so counted ones that were read within the challenge period.

I have completed one, the Orbis Terrarum Challenge (Nine books, nine authors, nine different countries):

1. Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino of Italy


2. Elementary Particles by Michel Houlebecq of France


3. The Sea by John Bainville of Ireland


4. Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang of China


5. Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb of Belgium


6. 1984 by George Orwell of England


7. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey of Scotland


8. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein of Canada


9. Throne of the Eagle by Carlos Fuentes of Mexico

I have started the What's In A Name Challenge:

• A Book with a color in its title:


• A book with an animal in its title: Throne of the Eagle (done)


• A book with a first name in its title: The Lais of Marie de France


• A book with a place in its title:


• A book with a weather event in its title: Atmospheric Disturbances (in progress)


• A book with a plant in its title:

I have also started the Man Booker Challenge (six Man Booker winners, short/long listed):

1. The Sea by John Bainville (done)


2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (done)


3. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood


4. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan


5. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

I am also interested in the Seconds Challenge and the Japanese Lit Challenge 2 but I want to finish the two above first.

Sunday (Monday) Salon

Last week I managed to finish White Noise by Don DeLillo. It was a fairly compelling read even though it didn't really seem to have a strong narrative direction. Overall I would given it 3.5/5. One quote that I really liked:

...but I think it's a mistake to lose one's sense of death, even one's fear of death. Isn't death the boundary we need? Doesn't it give a precious texture to life, a sense of direction? You would have to ask yourself whether anything you do in this life would have beauty and meaning without the knowledge you carry of a final line, a border or limit.

Today, I finished Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol. It was recommended by Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution. I really liked it, even though it was pretty creepy. While not intensely so, it was one of those books you feel you have to read, but you aren't really sure that you want to keep reading it because it disturbs you. 4.0/5.

Last week, I made a trip to the used book store and bought four books:

1. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan: I want to read this one for the What's in a Name Challenge and it is a winner of the Booker prize.


2. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin: I cannot remember who recommended this one.


3. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa.


4. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton: because I enjoyed How Proust Can Change Your Life so much and it was only $4

I also purchased Readings by Michael Dirda from B&N. Then also went to Borders and purchased Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? by H. Bloom and Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin from the bargain table.

So ... seven books purchased this week ... I have to learn to read faster.

Sunday Salon - a day late

This week I finished The Lais of Marie de France and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

The Lais is a series of stories written by a medieval french woman. I had to read one, Eliduc in college. I remember liking it, which is why I wanted to read the book. Overall the stories were interesting, and I enjoyed the book. I give it 3.5/5. A fine quote from the lai Equitan:

Love is not honorable, unless it is based on equality.

Cloud Atlas was a great book, 4.25/5. It is a series of six nested stories, loosely connected. Even though I enjoyed it, I had two minor quibbles. First, the stories ran A B C D E F E D C B A and by the time I got back to C, B and A, I had lost track of what was going on. Second, I felt the end sort of petered out without really coming to any kind of conclusion. Still, a great book. I am looking forward to reading more by David Mitchell, probably number9dream.

This week I added Margaret Atwood's Blind Assassin to my book collection. I am a member of both Borders and Barnes & Nobles, which means that they will send me discount coupons, especially Borders from whom I receive a coupon weekly. After purchasing Atwood's book, I remembered that I had wanted to get Reading the OED, but forgot. Well, this morning, I received another coupon from Borders for 40% off a purchase of $20 or more, so I will be going to get Reading the OED later today.