false 8 274 195 true 5633061 read 1 true 1523914 currently-reading 30 true 1523913 to-read 42 true 2379850 wish-list 6 true 5120370 next-to-be-read 223 false 2425029 own 40 false 1555328 favorites 33 false 2379861 never-finished 23 false 3280851 textbooks http://apps.facebook.com/good_reads/ check it out » ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57601598 In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (Paperback) by Bertrand Russell
bookshelves: currently-reading, own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57319577 to: A Drifting Life (Softcover) by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
bookshelves: favorites, own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21702802 Sunflower (Paperback) by Gyula Krúdy
bookshelves: next-to-be-read, own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book/recommendation/338435 Monika recommended the book Star Wars: Chewbacca to Thomas

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]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23761077 to: Sentimental Education (Paperback) by Gustave Flaubert
bookshelves: favorites, own
naturally, after reading Madame Bovary, i needed to read more Flaubert.. Sentimental Education, at 500 pages, is nearly double the pleasure of Madame Bovary.. i was attracted immediately to the nearly plot-less story and the circulatory everyday life of its main character, Frederic, over a period of years.. years in which he never matures, squanders his fortune on unrequited love and never does get that education..

Flaubert always wanted to write "a novel about nothing" and he would have succeeded with this one if he had tried a little harder or had shaved off a few pages.. ha ha.. but i'm glad that he didn't and that he used so many pages to say so little.. all the while dazzling the reader with rich details and carefully assembled words (who else can paint an entire human being in just one sentence?).. Flaubert reads like a polaroid picture - an instant visual impression is left with the reader.. and it is the reader who is left with the education.. from history (french revolution of 1848 along with fully detailed trends at the time in furniture, food, clothing and the like) to the ways of society (with a sharply focused eye particularly on the baseness and pettiness of human relations) and finally, running throughout the 500 pages, the experience of human failure..

as with many of my favorite books, i hated to end this one.. i wish it would go on and on..





]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21702652 to: Novels in Three Lines (Paperback) by Félix Fénéon
bookshelves: favorites, own
Best enjoyed in daily doses of a few pages at a time. Not only does that make the book last longer, but you have more time to reflect how genius every nugget of a line is.

This work aside, what I would really enjoy is to know more about Feneon.... more than just the brief intro on him offered in this book. More than just that tease about what an enigma, possible anarchist and quiet dandy he was. I want more details about how he translated Poe, was the first to publish James Joyce, and how he championed the work of others (notably, Rimbaud) but chose to stay in the shadows himself. When pressed to publish or release his own work, he simply said, "I aspire only to silence."

Luckily, there is one definitive (but expensive) biography out there and I must add it to the top of my to-read list soon.....Felix Feneon: Aesthete & Anarchist in Fin-de-Siecle Paris, by Joan Ungersma Halperin ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42691041 to: Bouvard And Pecuchet (Paperback) by Gustave Flaubert
bookshelves: never-finished, own
I had such high hopes for this novel, it certainly opened up strong. It was Flaubert at his best, painting vivid images with his words and keeping that infectious rhythm that makes reading him such a pleasure. Then, to add to my excitement, one of the characters had on his bookshelf, a copy of "something by Feneon". As a recent fan of Felix Feneon, I immediately started to read faster and wanted to get to know those two fellows, Bouvard and Pecuchet, all the more.

So.... all was well until about page 76. This is when the characters, among their many harebrained schemes and ideas, begin to torture and abuse animals, not to mention one human. I immediately lost all interest. Of course, I'm taking this too seriously and it's just a book.. blah blah blah.. but I'm way too sensitive about stuff like that. It's a shame too, because aside from this evil, those two bumbling fools were pretty funny, and Flaubert's writing is flawless, even if he did die before fully finishing this novel. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42690955 Monkey Portraits (Hardcover) by Jill Greenberg
bookshelves: own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book/recommendation/186269 Monika made a comment on Thomas's recommendation of Burning Up: On Tour with the Jonas Brothers to Monika: i'm clueless as to who these guys are (i know their name because it's constantly being buzzed around and the buzz makes me close my ears and run the other way).. but i guess it's good to know, for future trivia situations, that they are from jersey.. haha.. ]]>