2017-02-08 14:28
I read Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" so many years ago I can't remember exactly when that was. I believe it was in the summer of 2000 or a little before that. I was an interesting book… Read More
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Books, Art, Music, Writing and the Teaching Life
2017-02-06 13:37
In 1993, at a very difficult point in my life, I was rooming with some people of "cultural consequence," including a music composer and several artists. What I remember the most from t… Read More
2017-01-20 14:56
This blog began as a journal and tribute to my late father. At the time, I knew I wanted to start a blog but I had no direction or idea where to start. For the most part, I was l… Read More
2017-01-18 14:35
This post is not meant as political criticism, although I am sure many will see it as such. I will go to great lengths to not mention the obvious. It seems that this nation, and… Read More
2017-01-16 17:10
This is a re-read for me. I first John Keegan's "The First World War" in 2002 while preparing to team-teach a course on military history and conflict. I was assigned to read the… Read More
2017-01-16 15:41
The death of Umberto Eco on February 19th was no big event in the United States. I did not hear anything in the news. It was not even covered in "The New York Times Book Review"… Read More
2016-07-04 17:43
Understanding Roland Barthes as a semiologist should not be that difficult; coming to terms with him as an academic figure, well, that's a different story. The difficulty in understand… Read More
2016-06-17 00:19
I just finished re-reading Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and found it just as difficult to read as I did in both undergraduate and graduate school. I am not quite sure why this n… Read More
2016-02-03 16:14
In 2008, I wrote a blog entry about Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," the iconic painting of the late night diner and the characters inhabiting it. I wrote my entry mainly directed at the… Read More
2016-01-29 16:11
I have written sparingly about books dealing with writing. The last time I did, I got some nasty comments for my criticism of a famous writing guru who mixes writing with neo-esoteric/… Read More
2016-01-25 15:28
Picking up a volume of "The Best American Short Stories - 2015" edited by Michael Chabon, I came across this gem by J. Robert Lennon. "Eight Pieces for the Left Hand" is written in the… Read More
2016-01-22 16:09
"A Tranquil Star" by Primo Levi is one of those books one picks up at a bookstore mainly due on the strength of the author. I must confess that what interested me the most about it was… Read More
2016-01-22 15:41
I first saw this painting during an introductory art appreciation course in college. My exposure to art had been very limited up to then, but the timing could not have been more perfec… Read More
2016-01-13 15:55
I've had this book for a long time (it was presented to me as a gift the very week it was published) and I never took the time to read it right away. I certainly appreciated "The Princ… Read More
2016-01-13 15:53
I read somewhere that most people who write journals often end up writing about the same thing over and over again. I may be very guilty of this offense. I've begun the process o… Read More
2015-09-08 20:37
"Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails: A Memoir" by Anthony Swofford should be the last book I pick up at the present time. Nevertheless, I picked it up and read it voraciously with the love o… Read More
2015-09-08 19:54
Life ends... There's nothing we can do about it. At that time, we must lock ourselves up in a tiny place and take refuge away from others... take refuge in literature, art and music… Read More
2015-06-11 00:12
Cuando un amigo se va / When a friend leavesqueda un espacio vacío / only an empty space remainsque no lo puede llenar / that cannot be filledla llegada… Read More
2015-03-29 15:25
The protagonist of Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" should be listed as one of the great tragic figures of American literature. Seymour "Swede" Levov is a literary character like… Read More
2015-03-07 17:29
"Boredom" by Alberto Moravia is one of those novels that remains undetected until a big series of republications bleeps it out into the literary radars. I picked it up at Barnes &… Read More
2015-02-22 19:42
Nicholson Baker is regarded by many people in literary circles as a quiet genius. "The Anthologist" might just be the biggest proof of it. Baker does not stand out outside of lit… Read More
2015-02-07 15:07
The impact of a book like "A Rumor of War" is forceful in many intimate ways. This is not just a "war story," but a story of a truth so devastating few of us would look at it directly… Read More
2015-01-31 15:32
My fascination with John Cheever's work and life began with a photograph of the author in "The Writers' Desk" by Jill Krementz. The photograph shows Cheever at his typewriter and is ta… Read More
2015-01-27 22:16
2015-01-14 15:42
I read "Bear and His Daughter" in 1998, shortly after it was published. It was the very first book I purchased the Saturday immediately after finishing graduate school, and one of the… Read More
2015-01-14 15:34
I didn't plan on reading "Goodbye, Columbus" this year. This collection of short stories by the great Philip Roth wasn't even on my reading list, but finding a paperback copy in my loc… Read More
2015-01-14 14:59
"The Strange Library" by Haruki Murakami is one of those little books that borders between short-story, novella or something else, and is, most of all, indicative of Murakami's vast genius… Read More
2014-12-06 15:41
There are only a few bad reviews on this blog. These are books I couldn't find a single positive thing to write about. Some people say it is dishonest to try and "force" yourself… Read More
2014-10-18 13:57
"Existentialism and Human Emotions" by Jean Paul Sartre is not a beginner's introduction to the philosophy. I think it is at times confused by many as an "easy read" because its slim a… Read More
2014-09-27 14:11
I just recently posted a review on my re-reading of "Dispatches" by Michael Herr, far considered as the best book about war by a correspondent. In the interest of full disclosure, I wi… Read More
2014-09-20 19:21
I have read every book by Michael Dirda. While living in Washington, DC between 1996 and 2000, the Washington Post's "Book World" reviews were my Sunday morning treat. "Bound to… Read More
2014-09-20 18:37
"Brideshead Revisited" is one of those classics that seems to slip through the cracks of our literary attention. The novel is one of those perpetual books on our reading lists; the boo… Read More
2014-09-06 14:06
Haruki Murakami's new novel, "Colorless Tsukuri Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage," suffers from a long title, one hard to remember and difficult to convey to bookstore attendants (unl… Read More
2014-08-02 16:15
This year marks the 100th anniversary of World War One. A few years ago, when the last of the American "dough boys" (Frank Buckles) died, the event went fairly unnoticed. This ye… Read More
2014-08-02 14:22
"A Little More than Kin" by Ernest Hebert is one of those novels that stays with you. I first read this novel back in 1993 after I found it on a discount rack for $1.00. It was (… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I was standing behind a young couple while waiting to order coffee at the local cafe. It was hard not to eavesdrop since the young man was a loud-talker, but the rationale behind the p… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It was a cold Christmas eve, December 24, 1998, the last public showing of the Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Washington, DC. The van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam loaned most of its exclus… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
What strikes me the most about this short collection of letters is how discreetly it came and went through the literary radars, and how little notice it received from reviewers. I must… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I have fallen into the habit of picking up books that are perhaps a bit on the out-dated side and yet finding myself unable to put them down. I've always felt an intense responsibility… Read More
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