Bibliophile

They're holding this year's 'Festival international du livre et du film' Étonnants Voyageurs this weekend -- and that's a pretty fine and packed list of participants they have there.
They're holding this year's 'Festival international du livre et du film' Étonnants Voyageurs this weekend -- and that's a pretty fine and packed list of participants they have there.
score: 1 15 minutes ago
I missed this last week, but they've announced the longlist for the (South African) Sunday Times Fiction Prize -- where, unusually for a literary prize, once again: "A large number of books on the longlist this year are crime novels". ...
I missed this last week, but they've announced the longlist for the (South African) Sunday Times Fiction Prize -- where, unusually for a literary prize, once again: "A large number of books on the longlist this year are crime novels". Among the authors of note with books on the 31-title-strong longlist are: Michiel Heyns, Nadine Gordimer, Imraan Coovadia (with the wonderfully titled The Institute for Taxi Poetry -- which I'd love to see), and Andre Brink.
score: 1 15 minutes ago
In The Australian they have an adapted version of Helen Garner's keynote speech last month at the inaugural Stella Prize, the new Australian literary prize that only considers works by women -- though in speaking about The losing game of...
In The Australian they have an adapted version of Helen Garner's keynote speech last month at the inaugural Stella Prize, the new Australian literary prize that only considers works by women -- though in speaking about The losing game of writing books to win Garner's focus isn't on the women-only aspect as instead she talks more generally: about the bizarre effects of prizes on people's idea of their own worth, and about the undeniable fact that every girl who writes needs a bucket of cash to be thrown over her at least once in her life, so she can soldier on, and even feel for a while that it's been worth the torture.
score: 1 15 minutes ago
There was no theme to my reading this week, and I chose my stories more or less on a whim. Aside from my classmate’s story that I had to critique, this is what I read: The week began with “Born of Man and Woman,” an inc...
There was no theme to my reading this week, and I chose my stories more or less on a whim. Aside from my classmate’s story that I had to critique, this is what I read: The week began with “Born of Man and Woman,” an incredibly disturbing story by Richard Matheson. This book was recommended by our friend Eric Kibler. Coincidentally, I read this the day after the three missing Cleveland women were found. There are just enough similarities in setting that an indelible line formed in my mind between the story and the news. I wasn’t able to find the story online at a site that was reliably authorized to reprint, so you’ll need to find this on your own. “Meat, My Husband” by Lydia Davis from Almost No Memory – An odd little story about a marriage. The story begins with the narrator telling us how she learned that her husband’s favorite food was corned beef. “Jack of Coins” by Christopher Rowe at Tor.com – This was recommended to me by Gwenda Bond, author of Blackwood. (She fully disclosed that Christopher Rowe is her husband). Set in a dystopian world, a stranger appears dressed in a band-leader costume. Who is he? Where are we? This story is full of wonderful imagery, and it made me want to learn more. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor. I read this one again for a class assignment, this time focusing on how O’Connor uses dialogue in such a masterful way. “Regeneration at Mukti,” Julia Elliott. In The Pushcart Prize XXXVII (2013 edition), edited by Bill Henderson – There is so much here to admire. We meet our main character at a spa where they administer very unusual skin treatments to those who want to regain their youthful appearance. I came away believing that this place could actually exist. Maybe it does. “Punchline,” by Erin McGraw, also from The Pushcart Prize XXXVII (2013 edition)- A priest has an existential crisis as a result of loss. Not my favorite story, but well crafted. I know this is short and somewhat disjointed, but please know that I am still keeping up on my daily story. Some days it’s all I can do to take in the final words before my eyes close, but short stories have become my nightcap. I can’t imagine most nights without one.
score: 1 about 2 hours ago
We can’t lose an opportunity to wish Omar Khayyám a happy birthday. He was born on this day in 1048 in Nayshapur, now in modern Iran.  And fortunately, we have Don Share to remind us of the event over at his blog “Squanderman...
We can’t lose an opportunity to wish Omar Khayyám a happy birthday. He was born on this day in 1048 in Nayshapur, now in modern Iran.  And fortunately, we have Don Share to remind us of the event over at his blog “Squanderman.” As Don notes:  “A brilliant polymath, Khayyám was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician and poet. Most renowned during his lifetime as a mathematician, Khayyam wrote the influential Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra (1070), which, according to this Wikipedia entry, ‘laid down the principles of algebra, part of the body of Persian Mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In particular, he derived general methods for solving cubic equations and even some higher orders.’” Mostly, however, Khayyám is remembered for his Rubáiyát, and in the English language, that means Edward FitzGerald‘s translation: Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the White Hand Of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires. Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose, And Jamshyd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows; But still a Ruby kindles in the Vine, And many a Garden by the Water blows … Alright, alright … these are really really tired rhymes.  But keep in mind that FitzGerald was writing in the late Victorian era, when nobody had gotten sick of them yet. To criticize today would be like getting grumpy at the words of Christmas carols.  They have to be taken on their own terms. According to Carol Rumens over at The Guardian: The 101-verse semi-narrative FitzGerald finally assembled is the product of a ruthless editorial job – but how much poorer English poetry would be without it. His endeavour might more generously be termed “transcreation”. Khayyám, an agnostic famed during his lifetime as a mathematician and astronomer rather than a poet, and his mediator, a nineteenth-century English sceptic who believed that “science unrolls a greater epic than the Iliad”, may not meet in a true linguistic union, but there seems to be a “marriage of true minds” nevertheless (and, yes, you’ll note a passing trace of Shakespeare in FitzGerald’s diction). The speaker that emerges with such authority and panache, despite the stiffish western dress of iambic pentameter, has a voice unlike any other in Victorian poetry, and a philosophical sensibility which, while it has been compared to that of Epicurus and Lucretius, is new and distinct. A whole culture must have suddenly seemed within the imaginative reach of the poem’s first audience. “Stiffish western dress of iambic pentameter”?  Who sez?  We must also respectfully disagree with the wise Don Share when he refers to the “jiggered” verse of Edward Fitzgerald.  We’ll grant him the use of that word in the sense of exhausted or shopworn.  Khayyam’s verses had been quoted by cheesy wannabe seducers until the Circes began laughing them out of the room.  But Fitzgerald’s verses would not have become clichés if they had not been so good in the first place. Would we even talk about Khayyam today if it were not for Fitzgerald’s verses. Khayyam is remembered in other ways, as Journalist Kourosh Ziabari reminds us: Tunisia has constructed a set of hotels named after Khayyam. One of the lunar craters has been named in honor of Omar Khayyam. The Omar Khayyam crater is located at 58.0N latitude and 102.1W longitude on the surface of moon. The Outer Main-belt Asteroid 1980 RT2 is also named in honor of Omar Khayyam. The Argentine Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara named his son Omar in honor of Khayyam and his work. Omar Pérez López is a Cuban writer and poet. The American clergyman and activist Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Khayyam in his speech Why I oppose war in Vietnam: “It is time for all people of
score: 1 about 4 hours ago
I failed miserably the first time I participated in the Classics Club Spin. But with summer lingering a mere 4 weeks away (seriously, this school year has flown by), I'm going to have a LOT of reading time! I figured I should get back in...
I failed miserably the first time I participated in the Classics Club Spin. But with summer lingering a mere 4 weeks away (seriously, this school year has flown by), I'm going to have a LOT of reading time! I figured I should get back into the reading spirit by going along with the spin! The rules are simple...I make a list of 20 books off my TBR as candidates for the spin. The Classics Club will "spin" for a number...whatever number is chosen will become the book I read as my spin book! I will have until July 1 to finish the book! I'm dividing my list into categories to make things a bit more interesting. Here we go! 4 Books I DON'T want to Read: 1. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyon 2. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad 3. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells 4. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov 4 Books from my TBR Challenge: 5.Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe 6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 7. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott 8. Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro 4 Chunksters: 9. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (because this would be a good push to finish it) 10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 12. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 4 Books I WANT to Read: 13. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 14. The Return of the Native by Thomas hardy 15. Billy Budd by Herman Melville 16. 1984 by George Orwell 4 Books Matt Chose (based on title): 17. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 18. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells 19. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 20. Belinda by Maria Edgeworth There you you have it! Let me know if you are participating, as well as what books you chose for your list!
score: 1 about 6 hours ago
On Kubrick, James Naremore (M, 30s, clean cut, black suit, red tie, brown leather shoes, 4 train) http://bit.ly/14sF7P2
On Kubrick, James Naremore (M, 30s, clean cut, black suit, red tie, brown leather shoes, 4 train) http://bit.ly/14sF7P2
score: 1 about 10 hours ago
The Master Switch, Tim Wu (M, 30s, short hair, cropped beard, wallet in back pocket caused hole in jeans, M train) http://bit.ly/14sDXTE
The Master Switch, Tim Wu (M, 30s, short hair, cropped beard, wallet in back pocket caused hole in jeans, M train) http://bit.ly/14sDXTE
score: 1 about 12 hours ago
credit: Eric Staudenmaier I love a good book-lined hallway but I always wonder: would I ever get to where I’m going if I had to pass along one? Or would I just end up distracted by all those beautiful books?
credit: Eric Staudenmaier I love a good book-lined hallway but I always wonder: would I ever get to where I’m going if I had to pass along one? Or would I just end up distracted by all those beautiful books?
score: 1 about 13 hours ago
ALB is getting a face lift!  Insites Web Design has created a fun new Word Press theme for us and we hope to get it installed over the weekend. You’ll see a new color scheme, a cool new graphic, and faster load time.  It is a respo...
ALB is getting a face lift!  Insites Web Design has created a fun new Word Press theme for us and we hope to get it installed over the weekend. You’ll see a new color scheme, a cool new graphic, and faster load time.  It is a responsive theme, so it will look better on mobile devices, [...]
score: 1 about 14 hours ago