Yeah, what can I say? I panicked. So I'll see how this little bit o' book (138 tiny* pages) goes, then see if I still want to peruse The Novels.
* 4.8 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
Day 1 (DDRD 2,182) October 22, 2023
Read to page 51. No great feat given the dimensions of this book (see above), but it is what it is. I'm thinking two more days will put this to rest. Maybe even one, since I'm heading to church in a little while and will have an hour and a half of pew time before the service begins. (Daughter, choir). I'm happy to say that the "stories" in this volume are much better than the short pieces in The Complete Stories. Maybe because they were chosen by an editor from two volumes of unpublished stuffs. (So far as I've been able to find, those two volumes were only published in German. Danke schön, Gott.
ADDENDUM: Had waiting time before a Louisville Chamber Music concert, too, so I read to page 90. Tomorrow ought to do it, then. (Woo-hoo.)
Day 2 (DDRD 2,183) October 23, 2023
Read to page 138, so that's that. And while the "stories" in this book were much better than The Shorter Stories in The Complete Stories...there was still nothing here that I'd consider essential. Which makes me wonder if it's wise to continue down this "Complete" Kafka road. But that saud, I picked Amerika up from the library today.
Oh, here are a few things from the Afterward to The Lost Writings:
the editor refers to Kafka as "the master of the literary fragment." Which is not as fawning as the stuff Max Brod had to say about FK, but is still more than a bit much. And isn't "master of the literary fragment" something along the lines of "master of masturbation"... something that really has no place in the public eye (do to speak)?
Also, the editor says that all of Kafka's published works could be fit into 350 pages...and that said published works represent only about 1/10th of the extant Kafka writings.
So there's that.
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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