Moving Books
I had long planned that when I turned 65 I’d write about 65 books that have moved me most over a reading lifetime.
I’m 67 now so I’ve added a tome or two. It’s time to start before I lose the plot.
From time to time I’ll write about other things. That may slow me down, but I expect to be done here in 2027.
Until then, let’s muse…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass
I have bought a cartload of copies to distribute to a throng of first-born children, deliberately infiltrating home libraries with grumpy Duchesses and Sheep who run retail outlets.
Marcovaldo
Marcovaldo does not know the rules of the city, of this post-war, urban economy. His heart, his know-what, his know-how, are aligned to seasons beyond city limits.
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller
You have the gleeful and perplexing task of mustering sense and senses from diverting encounters (or chapters if You will) in this engrossing 240-page novel of detours.
Visiting the Sixties
There was debate aplenty on campuses and in the media, and among students who lived a walk or a bus ride from like minds. Physical and intellectual spaces invited challenge and challengers. The dissent was ecumenical – make trouble about whatever troubles you.
Eucalyptus
Fairytales leave us not with fairies but with flinty observations about what works and what does not. The morals of the story. You can collect a pocketful of flints from a slow wander through Eucalyptus.
Eyewitness
‘When journalism is gagged, literature must speak.’ So a muffled Adjidarma wrote stories, and those in Eyewitness speak loudly.
You don’t say…
Milosz investigates how self-deception and self-regard are conscripted to fabricate compelling counterfeits, deceptive Potemkin fables.
The House of the Mosque
Abdolah charts the demise of the house and the mosque, from civic prominence to marginal relevance, during the years before, and the early years of, Iran’s 1979 revolution.