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June 14
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Bob
marked as to-read:
Untold Stories (Hardcover)
by Alan Bennett
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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read in June, 2008
Bob said:
"The same stork that brought "The Banquet Years" delivered this as well - what a delight! I waxed enthusiastic about Bennett's "Writing Home" just a few months ago - look forward to more.
Part of Bennett's appeal is that of the s...more
The same stork that brought "The Banquet Years" delivered this as well - what a delight! I waxed enthusiastic about Bennett's "Writing Home" just a few months ago - look forward to more.
Part of Bennett's appeal is that of the secondary talents of any generation, augmented, I don't doubt, by the fact that this is best I can hope for as well....less
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Bob
gave
to:
Banquet Years (Paperback)
by Roger Shattuck
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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read in June, 1991
Bob said:
"Like a foundling baby, a basket of books turned up on the doorstep of my building - who is this neighbor who discards things I would cross a river (by subway) to obtain?
I read a borrowed copy of this some years ago and mentally filed it as one o...more
Like a foundling baby, a basket of books turned up on the doorstep of my building - who is this neighbor who discards things I would cross a river (by subway) to obtain?
I read a borrowed copy of this some years ago and mentally filed it as one of those books any decent cultural history shelf should have and yet was somehow unobtainable (Anthony Heilbut's excellent "The Gospel Sound" held a similar spot but I found that as well last year). Whether I could in fact have mail-ordered a copy from Powell's or other online seller (in retrospect, this would have taken seconds) is irrelevant compared to the serendipitous pleasure of finding one on the stoop.
What's it about? - oh, any number of Web pages can tell you that. ...less
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Bob
gave
to:
Jacob's Room (Paperback)
by Virginia Woolf
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in June, 2008
Bob said:
"The surface luminosity and epigrammatic appeal of Woolf's prose gets cloudier, like pastis with water, in the depths of the glass where the ultimate meaning lies. We follow Jacob through the first three decades of his life, chapter divisions and line...more
The surface luminosity and epigrammatic appeal of Woolf's prose gets cloudier, like pastis with water, in the depths of the glass where the ultimate meaning lies. We follow Jacob through the first three decades of his life, chapter divisions and line breaks serving to elide unpredictable lengths of time. The narration wishes our sympathies to lie with him but at the same time keeps him somewhat unknowable....less
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June 13
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Bob
is currently reading:
Caravan of Dreams (Paperback)
by Idries Shah
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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May 29
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Bob
gave
to:
Nadja (Paperback)
by André Breton
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Bob said:
"Though an invaluable resource, wikipedia is at best prosaic and sometimes just dreary. The summary "...based on Breton's interactions with an actual young woman (Nadja) over the course of 10 days, and is taken to be a semi-autobiographical descr...more
Though an invaluable resource, wikipedia is at best prosaic and sometimes just dreary. The summary "...based on Breton's interactions with an actual young woman (Nadja) over the course of 10 days, and is taken to be a semi-autobiographical description of his relationship with a mad patient..." fails to convey a scrap of the dreamlike poetry of the book, which combines surrealist dissociative fragments, a straightforward and non-judgemental description of interactions between two unusual people and a harsh postscript on the mental health establishment - plus 44 illustrations which at the time (Paris, 1928) might have served to ground the surrealism in specific reality but now (this many decades and a continent apart) only increase the mysterious otherworldliness of the landscape in which the story takes place....less
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Bob
gave
to:
The Art of Eating (Paperback)
by M.F.K. Fisher
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Bob said:
"Having known for years I should not be putting off reading M.F.K. Fisher on the grounds that being a "food writer" was somehow intellectually provincial, I probably nonetheless did just that.
There is also probably no great insight to be ...more
Having known for years I should not be putting off reading M.F.K. Fisher on the grounds that being a "food writer" was somehow intellectually provincial, I probably nonetheless did just that.
There is also probably no great insight to be gained from putting her in the context of what I have been reading lately, but I have been particularly enjoying the contrast between her unabashedly (and joyously) literary style and the coolly persuasive journalistic élan of Michael Pollan or Marion Nestle's succinct and pragmatic summaries of nutritional biochemistry.
This collection (over 700 pages) compiles five separate books Fisher published from the late 1930s onward - I shall not try to plow through the whole thing in a matter of days but I have read "Consider The Oyster" which has juxtaposed itself nicely with Mark Kurlansky's "The Big Oyster"....less
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May 26
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Bob
gave
to:
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Hardcover)
by Michael Pollan
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Bob said:
"Ah - common sense and elegant writing makes for fun and easy reading. Having always been suspicious of food faddism (no, really), I am pleased to have a little more scientific ammunition for rejecting all concern with fat, cholesterol etc and instead...more
Ah - common sense and elegant writing makes for fun and easy reading. Having always been suspicious of food faddism (no, really), I am pleased to have a little more scientific ammunition for rejecting all concern with fat, cholesterol etc and instead concentrate on simple rules of thumb like "no ingredients list with more than five items", "no ingredients list because it is a vegetable and not in a package" and so on. Has somewhat revolutionized my thinking about food, to some extent by dramatically simplifying it....less
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Bob
gave
to:
The Salt Eaters (Paperback)
by Toni Cade Bambara
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Bob said:
"Not as good as I remembered from ages ago but I may get back to it. Follows a set of African-American female characters in the South in the mid-70s, just as the bright flame of late 60s revolutionary fervor has died down enough for everyone to notice...more
Not as good as I remembered from ages ago but I may get back to it. Follows a set of African-American female characters in the South in the mid-70s, just as the bright flame of late 60s revolutionary fervor has died down enough for everyone to notice that life goes on - the world is better but not transformed and the Movement is mired in committees and decision-marking bureaucracy....less
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Bob
gave
to:
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)
by James Howard Kunstler
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Bob said:
"The most extreme of the current Cassandras on the state of the world as it is and will be shortly if we are indeed running out of fossil fuel. Some people who have read this are already out in the woods digging their root cellars - I am taking it in ...more
The most extreme of the current Cassandras on the state of the world as it is and will be shortly if we are indeed running out of fossil fuel. Some people who have read this are already out in the woods digging their root cellars - I am taking it in stride as I try to do many things. We'll see whether my sense that I am prepared to do without quite a few modern conveniences is just the half-baked teenaged Buddhism talking....less
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Bob
gave
to:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Hardcover)
by Jane Jacobs
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Bob said:
"Practically everyone I know has read this which may say more about who I know than how famous it is but I guess within its genre it doesn't need my paltry endorsement. Recommended to anyone who thinks living in cities is preferable and doesn't plan t...more
Practically everyone I know has read this which may say more about who I know than how famous it is but I guess within its genre it doesn't need my paltry endorsement. Recommended to anyone who thinks living in cities is preferable and doesn't plan to depart with the arrival of the first child. It has had the very salutary effect of making me look at many things I see every day in quite a new light....less
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