This is a big one: 805 pages. I'm going to try to restrain myself a bit on this, as (1) I don't want the series to end and (2) I want to have a clearer view of the novel. When I gulp books down --as I have been doing with the previous three novels in this tetralogy, though more by compulsion than by will--I get a little blurry on details.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,375) May 2, 2024
Read to page 54. Actually having a little trouble getting into this, but hopefully that's just a temporary thing.
Oh, also, this:
I sure hope Carlos got a cut of that Limited Edition pie.
Had to drive down to the Main Library to pick this up. It was listed as being at the Northeast Branch, but after waiting for three days I decided they didn't have it after all, no matter what the online catalog said, and went after it.
This one is a mere 278 pages, so, you know, it'll take a day or two. And since I only read 68 pages of The Angel's Game this morning, I might have to start in on it today.
And lookee here--there's a limited edition of this one, too:
And can you believe that it sold out at those prices? Somebody sure does love Carlos RZ.
I held out for about ten minutes, then started reading. So...
Day 1 (DDRD 2,373 2,372) April 30 29, 2024
Read to page 58. Actually wanted to read more, too. But I managed to restrain myself.
I think. (Time will tell.)
"People with a meagre soul always try to make others feel small, too...." (11)
On page 29, there's a reference to "the Santa Lucia market." There were references to two other Santa Lucia things in The Angel's Game...though I can't remember what those things were now. But clearly there's St. Lucy fascination going in here.
P.S. I Googled Barcelona and St. Lucy and look what (amongst other things) came up:
I can't tell Jacqueline about this, or she'll want to go to Barcelona.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,373) April 30, 2024
Read to page 154.
Speaking about schizophrenia, a doctor in the prison says, "The mind slowly deteriorates and the patient can no longer distinguish between reality and fiction." Fermin replies, "Like seventy percent of Spaniards...." (79)
"Let's shake hands and be friends, but, please, I beg you, stop farting like that, because I'm beginning to hallucinate and in my dreams I see Comrade Joseph Stalin doing the charleston. (89)
BTW, the library came through this time:
So unless I poop out, I now have a straight shot at the rest of this series. Very exciting. (馃憟Nerd!)
Later...
Read to page 140 and had to stop to catch my breath. This is a very brutal story, but it's also so compelling that I don't want to stop reading yet...even though I've already read over 80 pages today, and it hasn't been a day with a lot if down time.
So I'm going to catch that breath...and then read some more. I didn't really want go cut the grass today anyway.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,374) May 1, 2024
Read to page 278 = The End. So that was a nice little canter. The chronology of the series is growing faint to me now. I wish that I'd been able to read all 3 of these books at a slower pace. If I'd stuck to my 30 pages a day goal, it would gave taken me 487 + 521 + 278 = 1,286 ÷ 30 = 42.87 days to read this far. It took me 19 days...for an average of 67.68 pages per day.
馃毈
So...on to book 4. But first:
"...I think flags are nothing but painted rags that represent rancid emotions. Just seeing someone wrapped up in one of them, spewing out hymns, badges and speeches, gives me the runs. I've always thought that anyone who needs to join a herd so badly must be a bit of a sheep himself." (159)
Keeping this list at the bottom of each Daily Devotional Reading has become a bit unwieldy, so I'm going to put it here on its own from now on. Now in Larger Font Size!
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day
(1-11) History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI (12-14) History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III (15-17) Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III
(18-20) Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III
(21-23) The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age Philip IIl Volumes I - III
(24) This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611
(25)The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates (26) Peat and Peat Cutting +
DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000: 29,801pages, 29.8 Average Pages Per Day
(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 (12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages (13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages (14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages (15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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 (24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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 (29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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 (35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages (36) The Annotated Christmas Carol 7 days, 380 pages (37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages (38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages
2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day
(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages (40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages (41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages (42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages (43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages
+ 25 pages Bleak House and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.
2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day
DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).
(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages (4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages (5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages (6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages (7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages (8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages
FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days = 39.9 pages per day!
(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages (10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages (11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages (12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages (13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages (14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages (15) The Brothers Karamazov 24 days, 816 pages (16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages (17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages (18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages (19) The Landlady 3 days, 90 pages (20) Netochka Nezvanova 6 days, 196 pages (21) The Village of Stepanchikovo 8 days, 265 pages (22) Uncle's Dream 4 days, 162 pages (23) The Insulted and the Injured 14 days, 451 pages (24) Notes From a Dead House 8 days, 327 pages (25) Notes From Underground 4 days, 171 pages (26) Crime and Punishment 13 days, 555 pages (27) The Gambler 10 days, 405 pages (28) The Idiot 21 days, 682 pages
4,849 total Dostoyevsky pages as of now
(29) A Poetics of Handel's Operas 12 days, 386 pages (30) Blue Lard 8 days, 360 pages (31) Opera as Hypermedium 0 days (overlap), 198 pages (32) Why Do the Heathen Rage? 4 days, 191 pages (33) Wellness 7 days, 608 pages (34) The Shadow of the Wind 10 days, 487 pages
(35) The Angel's Game 6 days, 531 pages
(36) The Prisoner of Heaven 3 days, 278 pages
() The Labyrinth of Spirits __ days, 805 pages
() The City of Mist __ days, 162 pages
() The Nix __ days, 737 pages () Demons () The Adolescent
It can be yours for a mere $420.00 (plus $6.00 Shipping). There is at least one other limited edition of this novel at an equally outrageous price. I hope Carlos RZ is getting a slice if that pie.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,367) April 24, 2024
Read to page 65. Off to a good start, reviving my interest in The Story.
I think that a lot of the time good writing comes down to word choice. For instance, "A skyline stabbed by hundreds of chimneys...." (3) That "stabbed" is just a beautiful thing. Without it, the phrase is mundane and passes by unnoticed.
And then there's this: "[He] subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency." (4)
There's a reference to a Spanish writer, Benito P茅rez Gald贸s, of whom I'd not previously heard, so I went to our good friends at Wikipedia for some informationand got this: "Benito P茅rez Gald贸s (10 May 1843 – 4 January 1920) was a Spanish realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Miguel de Cervantes in stature as a Spanish novelist."
So I went over to the LFPL to see what I could see. There were 7 items listed. 2 were books about Gald贸s' writing. 1 was an anthology of Plays by Spanish writers. 1 was a novel in Spanish. Of the other three, all novels, two were book books--one in Remote Shelving (of course) and the other buried in an International Collection--and one, Dona Perfecta, was an e-book. I went for the latter because of the blurb which read, in part, "one of the towering masterpieces of nineteenth-century...."
So there's another path to follow through the literary forest.
And then there's this:
Day 2 (DDRD 2,368) April 25, 2024
Read to page 165. Yep, I spent some serious time on the couch reading. Pretty absorbing book. Might read some more later, but for now, duty calls, I cannot linger....
Day 3 (DDRD 2,369) April 26, 2024
Read to page 266.
Next time I hear someone say that Black people are just naturally better athletes, before I tell them that they're being racist, I'm going to recite this:
"Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, os the work, the vocation, and the technique." (182)
And how about this:
"It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for a human being. We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especiallywhen we'reawake." (202 - 203)
"The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant, and the feeble-minded as intellectual." (203)
First thought after reading 50 pages today: "How on 馃寧 could I have already read 50 pages?????"
"The main pillar of organized religion, with few exceptions, is the subjugation, repression, even the annulment of women in the group. Woman must accept the role of an ethereal, passive, and maternal presence, never of authority or independence, or she will have to suffer the consequences. She might have a place of honor in the symbolism, but not in the hierarchy. Religion and war are male pursuits. And anyhow, woman sometimes ends up becoming the accomplice in her own subjugation." (251)
Holes shit, Batman. That's a spicey ah-meat-a-ball!
You know, if I had $426 sitting around, I think I'd buy that red motherfucker. (馃憜)
Later....
Oops, I read it again. To page 295. And I STILL might read more, because I'm mos dev caught in its gravity. Let's see, 531 pages, which means 236 pages to go. And at the rate I'm going (65, 100, 130), that is probably not going to take me long to polish off--like 2 days, 3 at the most. So I put in a request for the next book, El prisionero del cielo (The Prisoner of Heaven).
And the beat goes on.
Y' know...if I'm going to read this whole The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series...which it appears I am, indeed, going to do...then I might as well go ahead and do the whole Carlos Ruiz Zaf贸n oeuvre, right? I mean...
El pr铆ncipe de la niebla (1993), translated as The Prince of Mist (2010)
El palacio de la medianoche (1994), translated as The Midnight Palace (2011)
Las luces de septiembre (1995), translated as The Watcher in the Shadows (2013)[12]
Marina (1999), translated as Marina (2013)
El cementerio de los libros olvidados series (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books)
La sombra del viento, 2001 (The Shadow of the Wind)
El juego del 谩ngel, 2008 (The Angel's Game)
El prisionero del cielo, 2011 (The Prisoner of Heaven)
El laberinto de los esp铆ritus, 2016 (The Labyrinth of Spirits)
La ciudad de vapor, 2021 (The City of Mist)
The first four are classified as Young Adult, so that should be quick.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,370) April 27, 2024
Read to page 375. So that's another 80 pages down. And probably more later on, but as of now a mere 156 pages to go.
How's this for an apt summary of the MAGA movement?
"Nothing makes us believe more than fear, the certainty of being threatened. When we feel like victims, all our actions and beliefs are legitimized, however questionable they may be. Our opponents, or simply our neighbors, stop sharing common ground with us and become our enemies. We stop being aggressors and become defenders. The envy, greed, or resentment that motivates us becomes sanctified, because we tell ourselves we're acting in self-defense. Evil, menace — those are always the preserve of the other. The first step for believing passionately is fear. Fear of losing our identity, our life, our status, or our beliefs. Fear is the gunpowder and hatred is the fuse. Dogma, the final ingredient, is only a lighted match." (297)
Day 5 (DDRD 2,371) April 28, 2024
Read to page 463. Busy day. Thought I was going to finish this book today...and still might, I suppose...but with only 63 pages remaining, I'm sure that tomorrow will do it.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,372) April 29, 2024
Read to page 531 = The End. A very good--and a very quick--read. An average of 88.5 pages per day, which us almost 3 times my goal. And I did it because the story pulled me along so hard that I really couldn't help it. Maybe this is the kind if book kids should be reading in high school; books that are serious and even "literary," but which are also exciting and compelling.
And yes, I am going to read the next book: El prisionero del cielo (The Prisoner of Heaven). Unfortunately, it looks like the Northeast Branch of the library has lost their copy, so I think I'm going to drive downtown and pick one up.
I just read the 5th issue of this series (which, alas, ends with issue #6). It is one fascinating comic book. Without delving into detail, let's just say that it combines the Funny Animal genre with Horror...specifically of the Serial Killer subset.
Yep.
I picked up my first issue (#3) from the stands because I was in the mood for an all ages anthropomorphic tale.
Little did I know. After finishing that issue, I immediately wanted to buy issues #1 and #2. Before I got to that, however, I discovered that Hoopla (that blessed library app) had them...and later added #3 as well.
I'm not much of a betting man, but in this case I'd wager that if you read these first three issues, you'd gladly plunk down your $3.99 apiece for #s 4, 5, and 6.
I thought I was going to read Nathan Hill's The Nix next... still swooning from the effects of his other novel, Wellness... but then I happened upon this--
--and I really, really wanted it. A beautiful, illustrated book...in a beautiful, illustrated box. And you know how I love books in boxes.
But there were two problems: (1) I'd never heard of this writer or this book, and (2) it cost $120. Plus $18 shipping. $138. That's pretty steep for one book.
But I still wanted it. So I found a copy at the library, thinking that I'd read it until (1) I became disappointed and lost interest, (2) I finished it and decided I didn't need to own it, (3) I decided I had to have it.
So that's why it's The Shadow of the Wind and not The Nix.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,357) April 14, 2024
Read to page 80...and that's with church, lunch out, and an opera, so that should tell you something about how compelling this one is.
It's got a secret underground library and a book which only sold 77 copies and a writer no one's ever heard of. And a quest to find that writer's lost works which evokes Ulysses' Gaze for me (one of my favorite movies). This is so far up my alley that if I open my mouth you'll see its eyes peering at you.
"One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep." (35)
"...it occurred to me that perhaps the papier-m芒ch茅 world that I accepted as real was only a stage setting." (36)
Yep.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,358) April 15, 2024
Read to page 147. So only 67 pages today...but I'm heading to bed now, so I might could tuck a few more in before I shut my eyes.
"Our world will not die as a result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke of everything, and a lousy joke at that." (107)
ADDENDUM: only got in a few more pages...to 150.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,359) April 16, 2024
Read to page 173. More than a bit short of what I wanted, but hospital volunteer plus plumber plus cutting the grass left me only enough time for 26 pages 馃槥.
"Darwin was a dreamer, I can assure you. No evolution or anything of the sort. For every one who can reason, I have to battle with nine orangutans." (157)
"The words with which a child's heart is poisoned, through malice or through ignorance, remain branded in his memory, and sooner or later they burn his soul." (167)
Wow. That is some powerful stuff. Makes you want to mind your Ps & Qs, doesn't it?
Day 4 (DDRD 2,360) April 17, 2024
Read to page 223--50 pages, so a little better...but another busy day with two doctor appointments, then another appointment, and then a karaoke session for Jacqueline and Joe.
馃槴
By the way, our friends at Wikipedia tell me that this book is the first in a tetralogy:
El cementerio de los libros olvidados series (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books)
La sombra del viento, 2001 (The Shadow of the Wind)
El juego del 谩ngel, 2008 (The Angel's Game)
El prisionero del cielo, 2011 (The Prisoner of Heaven)
El laberinto de los esp铆ritus, 2016 (The Labyrinth of Spirits)
La ciudad de vapor, 2021 (The City of Mist; stories, some connected to the novels)
Or, depending upon your point of view, a pentalogy.
The LFPL has all of them. Multiple copies. Sadly, though, not a single one of them is checked out...other than the one I've got in my hot little hands. So we'll see where that goes.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,361) April 18, 2024
Read to page 273. Really wanted to read more, but....
On page 246 there's a reference to the Hospice of Santa Lucia. That St. Lucy just pops up everywhere.
When Ferm铆n and Daniel visit the hospice, Zaf贸n describes a nun in this way: "She wandered off into the shadows, carrying her bucket and dragging her shadow like a bridal veil." (252) As Kurt Vonnegut was wont to say, "If that's not good, I don't know what is."
I had to stop by the library today to drop off a dvd of the Handel opera Giulio Cesare, and while I was there this
leaped into my arms and
started nuzzling my left breast. So yes, I took it home with me...but I'm not committing to anything yet. We'll see how The Shadow of the Wind goes first.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,362) April 19, 2024
Read to page 308.
Thunderstorm = 4:00 am wake-up call from son who is terrified of thunderstorms & wants to talk. Then a long day with a doctor visit, A two hour luncheon for hospital volunteers, and finally home to make dinner, clean cat poop pans, and collapse on the sofa. Oh, look, here's something that would make me feel better:
I probably won't go for it, seeing as the library does have these books. But I still wanna.
If they'd put these fuckers into a box, it'd already be heading my way. I really like books in little boxes. Seriously.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,363) April 20, 2024
Read to page 349. Hoping to read more later.
"Waiting is the rust of the soul." (315) Speaking of which, I'm going to see the Shelby County Community Theatre production of Waiting for Visit tomorrow.
I'm taking my Traveling Buddy, Jacqueline. Her mom asked her (skeptically) if she knew what the plat was abiut, ANF my girl answered, "Two guys talking."
Yep.
Later.
"While you're working, you don't have to look life in the eye." (363)
Which Miguel Moliner says to ridicule himself, claiming that his obsessive devotion to work is a way of avoiding self-examination (with a side-order of Socrates). But it immediately hit me...and this might be one of those non-hillarious Delta 8 moments...that you could also see a little dead Tocqueville pin-maker thing going on: work eats away the time and energy needed to examine The Life, hence the working stiffs (funny how that summons up an image of zombies, ennit?) are essentially denied access to their inner lives. Which is an excellent strategy if you want to keep a large number of people from asking too many questions.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,364) April 21, 2024
Read to page 388...which means less than 100 pages to go. Things have gotten a bit confusing for me in the Nurse Monfort section: too many names for my smooth brain. Nevertheless, I persist.
"...he now lived only for memories and regrets." (391)
Mmm-hmm.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,365) April 22, 2024
Read to page 433. I'm thinking one more day ought to do it. And you know, while I have enjoyed this book...sometimes immensely...and while I'm still thinking that I might go ahead with this tetralogy/ pentology business...and while I still salivate when I see that Folio edition...I'm glad that I didn't throw down that $120. I am pretty sure that I'll never read this book again...and I'm too old to be able to own things for very long...so it would have been a waste of money. Sad but true.
"One lives truly only once in a lifetime...." (407)
This feels both true and not true. If it is true, then my True Love was undoubtedly my second wife (also second ex-wife). Even though I haven't communicated with her in any way for years, I still think about her every day. And not the snarling witch who screamed at me, called my children retarded, and threw a bulletin board at me...although as you can imagine that was a vivid moment. No, I remember the gal who loved me unreservedly, who laughed with me and went on adventures with me. I miss her. I wish that I could talk to her. Even now. Which is sad...maybe even pathetic...but like nicotine, "one absorbs it in spite of one's precautions."
And by the way, the Shelby County Community Theatre production of Waiting For Godot was truly excellent.
And seeing it with Jacqueline intensified the fun dramatically. She just laughed and laughed...as did I...while most of the audience just looked puzzled...and occasionally aghast.
"Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lived fall apart so slowly we barely notice." (419)
馃敟
And along similar lines: "We make so many mistakes in life...but we only realize this when old age creeps up on us." (426)
Yep. I should have stayed in the Army. I had a chance to re-up for a station in Berlin. Could have seen all of Europe. Could have lived somewhere over there when I retired at age 48 with a full pension. Could have written the novels I wanted to write. But all I can say us "If only."
"Memories are worse than bullets." (427)
Day 10 (DDRD 2,366) April 23, 2024
Read to page 487 = The End.
"We're all whores, sooner or later." (480)
This was a good book, for sure, but I don't feel that it was a great book...which is what I'd expected. I think Ill still go ahead with the second book, but I'm not really feeling a commitment to the entire series at this point.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day
A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI
History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III
Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III
Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III
This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611
The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates
Peat and Peat Cutting
+
DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000: (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
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages (13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages (14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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
(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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
(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages
(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol 7 days, 380 pages
(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages
(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages
2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day
(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages
(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages
(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages
(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages
(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages
+ 25 pages Bleak House and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.
2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day
DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages (2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).
(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages
(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages
(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages
(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages
(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages
(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages
FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days = 39.9 pages per day!
(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages
(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages
(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages
(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages
(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages
(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages
(15) The Brothers Karamazov 24 days, 816 pages
(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages
(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages
(18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages
(19) The Landlady 3 days, 90 pages
(20) Netochka Nezvanova 6 days, 196 pages
(21) The Village of Stepanchikovo 8 days, 265 pages
(22) Uncle's Dream 4 days, 162 pages
(23) The Insulted and the Injured 14 days, 451 pages
(24) Notes From a Dead House 8 days, 327 pages
(25) Notes From Underground 4 days, 171 pages
(26) Crime and Punishment 13 days, 555 pages
(27) The Gambler 10 days, 405 pages
(28) The Idiot 21 days, 682 pages 4,849 total Dostoyevsky pages as of now
(29) A Poetics of Handel's Operas 12 days, 386 pages (30) Blue Lard 8 days, 360 pages (31) Opera as Hypermedium 0 days (overlap), 198 pages (32) Why Do the Heathen Rage? 4 days, 191 pages (33) Wellness 7 days, 608 pages (34) The Shadow of the Wind __ days, 487 pages
I've been an on and off reader of Fantastic Four (and Marvel in general). Mostly off of late. But I read Previews every month...and I check out leagueofcomicgeeks.com every week, so not much gets past me. And when I saw this cover...
...I was in for a pound. Or $3.99, anyway. Alas, I wasn't the only one In Search Of, however, so when I got to The Great Escape, there was only one copy of FF #19 left, and it looked like this:
Which was not what I wanted at all. I put it back on the stand and walked away...then thought about it some more and went back and opened it up.
And I said, "Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh...what a feeling!"
Flipped through some more pages. Yep, most of the art was black and white and red (all over). And the story was a hardboiled detective thing, with Alicia Masters as the hard-drinking, blind detective, and a non-rocky Ben Grimm as her erstwhile assistant (and husband). And there was a spunky young, mustachioed Johnny Storm who'd found himself in a bit of a pickle.
It was a fun little story. I doubt that I'll be buying FF #20 (as it's pretty clear that this hardboiled thing was one and done), but this issue is mos def worth looking for.
You can get it on Amazon for Kindle if you can't find a real copy. Or come over for a visit and I'll let you read mine.
The highest paid player in the WNBA is Jackie Young, whose annual salary is $252,450.
Now, that's a whole lot of money to me. In fact, at my highest salary--after two B.A.s, an M.Ed., and over two decades of teaching--three years of my pay would still bring me up $40,000 short of that number. So yeah, hats off to Jackie Young.
However...
The MINIMUM starting salary in the NBA (as of the 2023 - 2024 season) was $1.1 million.
And the top salary for 2023 -2024? That would go to Stephen Curryat $51.9 million.
It was time for the seasonal H/AC check-up, so I dutifully called and made an appointment with my usual company...with whom I've been doing business for quite a few years. The good news was that almost everything was in good shape. The bad news? There was a leak. Water was dripping when the furnace came on, and it had created a rust spot in the works. The technician told me that it wasn't something I had to hurry to fix, since the heating season was about over and there'd be no dripping when the heat wasn't on, but that I'd want to get it fixed before the next winter or further damage would result, eventually resulting in the need for a new furnace.
So of course, Nervous Nellie that I am, I said I wanted to get it fixed right away.
They sent me an invoice:
Well, perhaps needless to say, that took my breath away. I had been thinking "Minor repair, maybe a hundred bucks or so."
When I was finally breathing again, I called another company I'd dealt with...the ones who had installed my air conditioning unit last summer. I hadn't gone the maintenance program route with them because they were more expensive than my old company and because they had to book about a month out when I called them about a maintenance plan.
Much to my surprise, a technician arrived a few hours after I'd called. He took a look at the "damage," said it was no big deal, and showed me where a drain seal had gone bad. He took about ten minutes to reseal it and close everything up. Might have even been five minutes. And the bill?
Looks like I just made $1,674.
Holy shit, man! I am always getting a second opinion from here on out.
I have to confess that I'm not at all sure about this one. I don't know anything about Nathan Hill, and all I know about Wellness came from a single book review. The reviewed lived thus book...but hey, in the review of Blue Lard, THAT reviewed loved IT. But it's 608 pages long & it's due in 18 days (and no renewals), so if I want to read it for free, the time to start is now, the place to start is here.
So...about 34 pages per day, then. And I'm still inching my way through Opera as Hypermedium, which also can't be renewed, but is not due until 5/18/2024, so I don't have to worry about that one.
Enough said. Hello, Nathan Hill. How ya doin'?
Day 1 (DDRD 2,350) April 7, 2024
Read to page 41. But I'm going back for more. Just wanted to pause to note a couple of things.
A few pages in: "Loneliness... holds him like a buttonhole." (5) Well that's quite good, ennit?
And here's a word that was new to me:
craquelure
[ krak-loor, krak-loor; French krakuh-lyr ]
noun,pluralcra·que·lures[krak-loorz, krak-loorz; French krakuh-lyr].
a network of fine cracks or crackles on the surface of a painting, caused chiefly by shrinkage of paint film or varnish.
Like this:
Public Domain
To be honest, I didn't even know there WAS a word for that.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/craquelure
Thus far this is looking like a love story. But it's kind of corkscrewing into my soul. Remembering that first thrill when you see somebody you're attracted to. The uncertainty that precedes the first kiss, the first intimate, uncertain touch, the first time making love. And at the same time the dash of ice water in my face: I'll never know any of those things again. I've kissed my last kiss--and, alas, with a woman I didn't even like very much. I've touched my last intimate touch, made love for the last time. From here on out, however long that may be, it's just me. Like a road through the desert. And, to be honest, that's what I want now. I've been disappointed, deceived, and hurt more times than I thought I could endure, and pursuing further romantic relationships has all the appeal of entering the Colosseum for a date with a ravenous lion.
But I vividly remember those first uncertain days of falling in love. And that is what Wellness has been "about" for these first 41 pages.
Now I'm going to read a little more.
Oh wow. Chapter 2, twenty years later, things have changed. Substantially. 馃槶 "Nobody knows baby where love goes, But when it goes it’s gone gone." (Bruce Sprinsteen, "When You're Alone."
Turns out a little more was a lot more. Read to page 101. Things have shifted considerably. What was a sweet & odd falling in love story is now a frustrating story about what happens to love...perhaps inevitably. Which I suppose is comforting in a way. If love just naturally tends to deteriorate and rot with age, then that's unfortunate, but not indicative of personal failure. "Throw a rock against the road and it breaks into pieces."
That's how it goes, tough shit, motherfucker. 馃懚 wanna 馃嵓?
Day 2 (DDRD 2,351) April 8, 2024
Read to page 174. So a 73 page day. And I actually would like to read some more. I've got so far ahead of my goal on his that if I only read 28 pages a day I'd still finish by the due date. I doubt that I'd be able to hold myself to 28 pages a day, though. That's kind if thrilling in and if itself, ennit?
It's not a proFOUND book, but it does do a good job...well, Nathan Hill does a good job...of creating real moments. Of love found. Of love diminished. Of the difficulty of dealing with a toddler. Yeah. Maybe I will read just a little more.
Speaking of...as Elizabeth tries to deal with her difficult toddler, the text becomes peppered with references to scientific journal articles pertinent to her various struggles. I thought that was pretty funny, but thought it would be even funnier if the articles were real. So I Googled one of them — Laible and Thompson, 2002 — and lo and behold:
And because they're cool like that, I was able to locate and download this piece from the LFPL. I'm going to have a read of that, but first...A little more Wellness, I think.
ADDENDUM
Read more. This killed me:
"But stories have power only in so far as they are believed, and suddenly, sitting there, watching Toby happily eat, Elizabeth wondered if her and Jack's story wasn't in fact just another highly embellished placebo, just a fiction they both believed because of how good and special it made them feel. And maybe all love was like that, a placebo, and maybe every marriage ceremony was part of that placebo's elaborate ornamentation, its therapeutic context. And as soon as she considered this, it was as if the curtain came down, and just like her clients at Wellness, upon being told the truth about their fake therapies, the story no longer compelled.
"It was the day she lost belief. It was the day the fantasy she'd known as "Jack and Elizabeth, Soulmates" had -- in the lingo of the relevant research on this subject -- lost its efficacy." (180)
Killed me...because I'm pretty sure that's an apt summary of what happened to Clare.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,352) April 9, 2024
Read to page 209...35 pages...which I only note because I've had almost no reading time today. That's how easy it is to slip through this book.
"His psyche eagerly deformed reality to avoid that which it found intolerable." (189)
And that, my friend, is the whole ball if wax, isn't it? It's why women turn the men they left into objects of hate (and vice versa, no doubt). It's why people cling to their love for an execrable man like Trump. It's why we are all essentially living in our own little hermetically sealed worlds.
Hill spends some time on the Alvan Fisher painting, The Prairie on Fire, which looks like this:
Public Domain
All books should be annotated. Hill...or Jack, I suppose, thinks, This is a painting by a man who'd never seen the prairie, based on a novel by a man who'd never seen the prairie.
Read to page 238.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,353) April 10, 2024
Read to page 301. Waitaminute...how's that possible? I did wake up 2:30 Amish and read a few pages before going back to sleep, then dud a little reading this morning, but 63 pages? That surprises me. (Still going to read dome more, though.)
"...people have a very strong need to explain the world in ways that make them feel better, or safer, or more powerful, or more well liked, or more more in control, but not necessarily in ways that are true. Alas, the truth is of very low importance, psychologically speaking." (244)
A more nuanced version of the "deform reality" quote (☝) from page 189.
Dr. Sanborne tells Elizabeth that love is "an expansion of the self. It's when the boundaries of the self spread out to include someone else, and what used to be them now becomes you." (245)
Which resonates with me. And explains why the end of a relationship is so awful...at least for me. If you believe what Sanborne says here, then the ending if a relationship is the truncating of the self...like an amputation. Without anesthesia. With a dull saw. Yep, that stings a mite.
A big topic in the last hundred pages or do has been the ramifications of Bad Parenting. Which makes me examine my own parenting, and makes me think about specific moments when I've failed them in one way or another.
馃槗馃槩馃槸馃槙馃槙
At the bottom of page 308, I had to stop and do a library search for Rothko. One of the things I found was a documentary, available through hoopla, narrated by Rothko's son. So I stopped to watch that.
In one scene they were unpacking Rothko paintings and transporting then to different rooms in the museum, setting up an exhibition. I caught a glimpse of a cart which seemed to have a cup of coffee on it, which I thought was funny and irreverent, so I zoomed in.
No coffee...just A roll of some kind of tape, I think. But the zooming in interested me, so I kept going.
And ended up with a lovely painting, don't you think?
"I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions. Tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on. And the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you were moved only by their color then you missed the point."
The Silence of Mark Rothko (2016)
My last (and by that I mean final; there were a couple of women after her, but she was the last woman I really loved) was a Mark Rothko fan. That made me want to understand Rothko, for whom I must admit I had nothing but contempt. I did manage to move from that to bewilderment, but that's as far as I could get, I'm sorry to say. Truly--because it's the things that I don't get--Rothko and Pollack and Joyce and the last recordings of Coltrane-- that pull me, that name me want to punch above my weight class.
Anyway...I enjoyed the documentary...and the music, which I'm pretty sure was by Morton Feldman. I think I'll watch it again tonight after I get a little stoned on Delta-8. I want to see if I can fall into one of those paintings.
Later...
Didn't rewatch the movie.
Did get stoned.
Am.
But get this: I read to page 338. That's 100 pages today!
And I'd actually like to read more, but....
Am.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,354) April 11, 2024
Read to page 443. That's 105 pages! And it's too long to quote, but page 369 really kicks ass.
"It was the ritual that was important - the acupuncturist's thorough examination, the couple's elaborate date, the mother's comforting home remedy, the ceremonial mixing of the absinthe. It was in these observances that the placebo effect activated and materialized: the transubstantiation of belief into reality, of story into truth, a metaphor made flesh." (363)
Which might be a good argument for allowing ritual to be a part of our lives...and maybe explains why I'm so enamored with old school Catholic church services (incense, organ, choir).
In other news...
I stopped by the library today to return a couple of books, and somehow this
made it into my hands before I could get out the door. So I guess I'll have to read that next.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,355) April 12, 2024
Read to page 500. A mere 57 pages, but I'm probably going back go back for more once I get a little dad business done. And lookee there: only a tad more than a hundred pages to go!
Re Facebook:
"He doesn't understand that the friendly-looking place where he sees photographs of his neighbors' adorable children and pets is also maybe the most sophisticated fear engine ever created. He just thinks it's the normal news." (465)
"If you cling too hard to what you want to see, you miss what's really there." (496)
Later...
Read to page 528 and had to stop and catch my breath. A tear in the corner if my left eye. Wow. This Nathan Hill motherfucker can write.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,356) April 13, 2024
Read to page 608 = The End. And quite a satisfying book it was...as you'd probably guess from the fact that my goal was 34 pages per day, but I ended up at 87 pages per day.
Okay. Time for The Nix, I think.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day
A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI
History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III
Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III
Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III
This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611
The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates
Peat and Peat Cutting
+
DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000: (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
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages (13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages (14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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
(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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
(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages
(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol 7 days, 380 pages
(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages
(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages
2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day
(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages
(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages
(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages
(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages
(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages
+ 25 pages Bleak House and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.
2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day
DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages (2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).
(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages
(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages
(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages
(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages
(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages
(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages
FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days = 39.9 pages per day!
(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages
(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages
(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages
(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages
(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages
(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages
(15) The Brothers Karamazov 24 days, 816 pages
(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages
(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages
(18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages
(19) The Landlady 3 days, 90 pages
(20) Netochka Nezvanova 6 days, 196 pages
(21) The Village of Stepanchikovo 8 days, 265 pages
(22) Uncle's Dream 4 days, 162 pages
(23) The Insulted and the Injured 14 days, 451 pages
(24) Notes From a Dead House 8 days, 327 pages
(25) Notes From Underground 4 days, 171 pages
(26) Crime and Punishment 13 days, 555 pages
(27) The Gambler 10 days, 405 pages
(28) The Idiot 21 days, 682 pages 4,849 total Dostoyevsky pages as of now
(29) A Poetics of Handel's Operas 12 days, 386 pages
(30) Blue Lard 8 days, 360 pages
(31) Opera as Hypermedium 0 days (overlap), 198 pages
