Spring has arrived and it's time to update the blog with a new reading list. I shared the last one in January but in my defence, I'm more active on my Instagram account with book-related content. For over a decade I have wanted to read Marcel Proust’s masterpiece In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) and recently bought the 1st volume of 4 by Everyman’s Library. The novel has seven parts and this volume contains Swann's Way (Du côté de chez Swann), which most are familiar with, and the first part of Within a Budding Grove (À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs). I’m only a few pages in and am already captivated by the narrative voice and the rich prose. Proust in spring will be a gratifying pastime.
№ 30 reading list:
1 Essays Two · Lydia Davis
2 Swann's Way · Marcel Proust
3 What I Loved · Siri Hustvedt
4 Der Untergeher · Thomas Bernhard [German]
5 The Makioka Sisters · Jun'ichirō Tanizaki [rereading]
1 Essays Two · Lydia Davis
2 Swann's Way · Marcel Proust
3 What I Loved · Siri Hustvedt
4 Der Untergeher · Thomas Bernhard [German]
5 The Makioka Sisters · Jun'ichirō Tanizaki [rereading]
Translated by: 1) Swann's Way: C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin;
5) The Makioka Sisters: Edward G. Seidensticker
Reading Essays Two spurred me on to read Proust. Lydia Davis translated the latest available English edition of Swann's Way and discusses the project in some of the essays. (The Moncrieff translation I’m reading is older but has been updated.) These essays are my first Davis and I’m also reading Siri Hustvedt’s fiction for the first time. A fun fact: Hustvedt has been married to American writer Paul Auster (4 3 2 1, The New York Trilogy) for forty years who before was married to Davis.
I have mentioned before that each time I’m disappointed with a book and decide to toss it I reread one of my favourite books. On my last list, I had My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, the first book of her Neapolitan Quartet. I truly made an effort but gave up on Chapter 20. Neither the plot nor the characters appealed to me, and the style felt repetitive. To make it up to me I decided to reread The Makioka Sisters, a Japanese classic by Tanizaki. Before going to sleep, it's comforting to spend some time in the company of the Sisters.
I have mentioned before that each time I’m disappointed with a book and decide to toss it I reread one of my favourite books. On my last list, I had My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, the first book of her Neapolitan Quartet. I truly made an effort but gave up on Chapter 20. Neither the plot nor the characters appealed to me, and the style felt repetitive. To make it up to me I decided to reread The Makioka Sisters, a Japanese classic by Tanizaki. Before going to sleep, it's comforting to spend some time in the company of the Sisters.
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| Richard Diebenkorn, Untitled, 1981 |
image by me | Diebenkorn art via Richard Diebenkorn Foundation on Instagram
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