This is my web log, where I write stuff.
Books (and plays) I have read: list started August 5, 2012
August 2012:
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath, (1963)
The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkein, (1955)
(f) The Basic Kafka Kafka, (1946)
The Road Cormac McCarthy (2006)
The Beginning and The End Isaac Asimov (1977)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie (1920)
(f) Narcissus and Goldmund Herman Hesse (1930)
September 2012:
(f)It Can't Happen Here Sinclair Lewis, (1935)
(f)The Secret Adversary Agatha Christie, (1922)
Another Fine Myth Robert Asprin, (1978)
October 2012:
Aurora Dawn Herman Wouk, (1947)
November 2012:
The Body Snatcher and other Classic Ghost Stories Compiled by Michael Kelahan, (2011)
Black Coffee Agatha Christie, (1930)
Tom Sawyer Mark Twain, (1876)
The Unexpected Guest Agatha Christie, (1958)
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens, (1859)
Hickory Dickory Death Agatha Christie, (1955)
Babylon Revisited and other stories F. Scott Fitzgerald, (1960)
December 2012:
The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare, (~1597)
The Taming of The Shrew William Shakespeare, (~1590)
How the World Works Nicholson Baker, (2012)
All's Well That Ends Well William Shakespeare, (~1604)
As You Like It William Shakespeare, (~1600)
The Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare, (~1594)
January 2013:
Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes, (1966)
Android Down Dan Manning, (2010)
Cymbeline, King of Britain William Shakespeare, (~1609)
Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation Stephen Mitchell, (2002)
February 2013:
Measure for Measure William Shakespeare, (~1603)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark William Shakespeare, (~1602)
March 2013:
King Lear William Shakespeare, (~1606)
The Once and Future King T. H. White, (1939-1958)
A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare, (~1593)
April 2013:
The Tempest William Shakespeare, (~1623)
The Iliad Homer, (~750 BC)
Anarchism and Other Essays Emma Goldman, (1910)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre William Shakespeare, (~1607)
May 2013:
The Odyssey Homer, (~730 BC)
Republic Plato, (~380 BC)
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald, (1925)
Ashenden or: The British Agent W. Somerset Maugham, (1928)
June 2013:
Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll, (1871)
Othello William Shakespeare, (~1603)
The Cubicles of Madness Dan Manning, (2011)
Richard III William Shakespeare, (~1592)
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare, (~1591)
Julius Caesar William Shakespeare, (~1599)
July 2013:
Richard II William Shakespeare, (~1595)
1 Henry IV William Shakespeare, (~1597)
2 Henry IV William Shakespeare, (~1598)
Henry V William Shakespeare, (~1599)
1 Henry VI William Shakespeare, (~1591)
2 Henry VI William Shakespeare, (~1591)
3 Henry VI William Shakespeare, (~1591)
Titus Andronicus William Shakespeare, (~1592)
Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare, (~1593)
The Winter's Tale William Shakespeare, (~1610)
Timon of Athens William Shakespeare, (~1605)
Troilus and Cressida William Shakespeare, (~1602)
August 2013:
Twelfth Night William Shakespeare, (~1599)
Love's Labor's Lost William Shakespeare, (~1588)
King John William Shakespeare, (~1596)
Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare, (~1598)
The Merry Wives of Windsor William Shakespeare, (~1600)
Henry VIII William Shakespeare, (~1612)
Antony and Cleopatra William Shakespeare, (~1606)
Coriolanus William Shakespeare, (~1607)
I, Robot Isaac Asimov, (1950)
When You Are Engulfed In Flames David Sedaris, (2008)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy, (1886)
William Shakespeare's Star Wars Ian Doescher, (2013)
September 2013:
Tender Is The Night F. Scott Fitzgerald, (1934)
Ethan Frome Edith Wharton, (1911)
Dune (1/2) Frank Herbert, (1965)
North to The Rails (1/2) Louis L'Amour, (1965)
Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris, (2000)
Barrel Fever David Sedaris, (1994)
Techniques Of The Selling Writer Dwight V. Swain, (1965)
November 2013:
The Art of Critical Thinking Rolf Dobelli, (2013)
Ready Player One Ernest Cline, (2011)
The Best Short Stories of The Modern Age Douglas Angus, editor, (1962)
December 2013:
Oh Brother Christy Potter, (2013)
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas, (1844)
The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler, (1994)
January 2014:
The Hobbit JRR Tolkein, (1937)
The Inferno (1/2) Dante Alighieri, (~1314)
February 2014:
The Quiet American Graham Greene, (1955)
Free Will Sam Harris, (2012)
March 2014:
The Fellowship of The Ring JRR Tolkein, (1954)
May 2014:
The Two Towers JRR Tolkein, (1954)
Robot Stories Dan Manning, (2014)
June 2014:
Happy Valley (1/3) Patrick White, (1939)
July 2014:
The Return of The King JRR Tolkein, (1954)
Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein, (1959)
The Future of the Mind Michio Kaku, (2014)
August 2014:
The Naked and The Dead Norman Mailer, (1948)
Conan #1 Robert E. Howard, (1967)
September 2014:
Metamorphoses Ovid, (8 A.D.)
Intro to Objectivist Epistemology Ayn Rand, (1966)
October 2014:
Star Trek #1 James Blish, (1967)
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen, (1813)
November 2014:
The Secret History Donna Tartt, (1992)
Stranger In A Strange Land Robert Heinlein, (1961)
December 2014:
The Power and The Glory Graham Greene, (1940)
January 2015:
1984 George Orwell, (1949)
A Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man James Joyce, (1916)
March 2015:
Ulyssess (1/2) James Joyce, (1934)
April 2015:
The Once and Future King T.H. White, (1958)
The Sirens of Titan(1/2) Kurt Vonnegut Jr., (1959)
May 2015:
Sphere Michael Crichton, (1987)
June 2015:
Great Essays edited by Houston Peterson, (1953)
July 2015:
Meditations Marcus Aurelius, (170 to 180 CE)
Dracula Bram Stoker, (1897)
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, (1594-1623)
Reassess Your Chess Jeremy Silman, (2010)
September 2015:
How the Mind Works Steven Pinker, (1997)
The Elric Saga Part 1 Michael Moorcock, (1984)
October 2015:
Frankenstein Mary Shelly, (1818)
November 2015:
Night Shift Stephen King, (1976)
January 2016:
The Amature's Mind Jeremy Silman, (1995)
February 2016:
From Karamzin to Bunin Carl R. Proffer, (1969)
March 2016:
Cannery Row John Steinbeck, (1945)
May 2016:
The Supreme Doctrine Hubert Benoit, (1955)
June 2016:
Seize the Day Saul Bellow, (1956)
August 2016:
12 Steps to a Compassionate Life Karen Armstrong, (2011)
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy, (1877)
September 2016:
The Patchwork Devil Cavan Scott, (2016)
November 2016:
David Copperfield Charles Dickens, (1850)
Metamorphoses Ovid, (8?)
December 2016:
Howard's End E.M. Forster, (1910)
Engaging Pieces Howard Goldowsky, (2007)
The Complete Plays William Shakespeare, (1904)
Bobby Fischer Goes to War Edmonds & Eidinow, (2004)
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe, (1719)
January 2017:
Oliver Twist(+) Charles Dickens, (1837)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy(=) Douglas Adams, (1980)
The Stranger(=) Albert Camus, (1942)
February 2017:
When You Are Engulfed in Flames(+) David Sedaris, (2008)
The Sun Also Rises(+) Ernest Hemingway, (1926)
A Farewell To Arms(+) Ernest Hemingway, (1929)
Of Mice and Men(+) John Steinbeck, (1937)
Death Comes to The Archbishop(=) Willa Cather, (1927)
March 2017:
Cass Timberlane(-) Sinclair Lewis, (1945)
Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone(+) J.K. Rowling, (1997)
Lord of the Flies(+) William Golding, (1954)
April 2017:
For Whom the Bell Tolls(+) Ernest Hemingway, (1940)
Heart of Darkness & other Stories(+) Joseph Conrad, (1899)
May 2017:
Wuthering Heights(+) Emily Brontë, (1847)
June 2017:
Don Quixote(-) Miguel Cervantes, (1605)
July 2017:
A Room With a View(+) E. M. Forster, (1908)
August 2017:
Of Human Bondage(+) W. Somerset Maugham, (1915)
September 2017:
In Cold Blood(+) Truman Capote, (1965)
21 Great Short Stories(=) Lass, Tasman, Editors, (1969)
October 2017:
Family Happiness(=) Leo Tolstoy, (1859)
All The King's Men(=) Robert Penn Warren, (1946)
The Death of Ivan Ilych + Other Stories(+) Leo Tolstoy, (1960)
November 2017:
The American Short Story(=) ed. Calvin Scaggs, (1980)
The Call of The Wild(=) Jack London, (1903)
December 2017:
Orlando(=) Virginia Woolf, (1928)
The Voyage Out(=) Virginia Woolf, (1915)
Night and Day (=) Virginia Woolf, (1919)
Mrs. Dalloway(+) Virginia Woolf, (1925)
January 2018:
Jane Eyre(=) Charlotte Brontë, (1847)
February 2018:
Down and Out in Paris and London(+) George Orwell, (1933)
Why Buddhism is True(=) Robert Wright, (2017)
March 2018:
One Hundred Years of Solituded(=) Gabriel Marquez, (1967)
April 2018:
Crime and Punishment(+) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1866)
December 2018:
Moby Dick(+) Herman Melville, (1851)
The Wind in The Willows(=) Kenneth Grahame, (1908)
The Sirens of Titan(-) Kurt Vonnegut Jr., (1959)
The Moon is Down(+) John Steinbeck, (1942)
Mythology(-) Edith Hamilton, (1942)
50 Great Short Stories(+) Milton Crane, ed., (1952)
holy land (+) d.j. waldie, (1996)
December 2018:
The Caine Muniny(+) Herman Wouk, (1951)
January 2019:
The Story of Philosophy(+) Will Durant, (1926)
February 2019:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame(=) Victor Hugo, (1831)
The Canterbury Tales(=) Geoffrey Chaucer, (~1387-1400)
March 2019:
Short Fiction of the Masters(+) Hamalian, Karl, editors (1963)
"The Secret Sharer" and Other Great Short Stories(=) Lass, Tasman, editors (1969)
May 2019:
The Picture of Dorian Gray(+) Oscar Wilde (1890)
August 2019:
The Year of Lear(+) James Shapiro (2015)
A Year in The Life of William Shakespeare(+) James Shapiro (2005)
September 2019:
Far From the Madding Crowd(=) Thomas Hardy (1874)
Ishmael(=) Daniel Quinn (1992)
October 2019:
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(+) H. P. Lovecraft (1999)
Classics for Pleasure(+) Michael Dirda (2007)
Seven Men(+) Max Beerbohm (1919)
January 2020:
Hercule Poirot, Complete Short Stories(+) Agatha Christie (2013)
February 2020:
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas(+) Gertrude Stein (1932)
March 2020:
Other Voices, Other Rooms(=) Truman Capote (1948)
Jane Eyre(+) Charlotte Brontë, (1847)
May 2020:
Essays(+) Michel De Montaigne (1580)
Anatoly Karpov's Best Games(+) Anatoly Karpov (1996)
Jason and the Argonauts(+) Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC)
June 2020:
The Upanishads(+) trans. Eknath Easwaran (ancient/1987 translation)
The Waste Lands and Other Writings(+) T. S. Eliot (2002)
July 2020:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(+) Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
The Power of Now(+) Eckhart Tolle (1997)
Sense and Sensibility(=) Jane Austin (1811)
The Island of Doctor Moreau(+) H. G. Wells (1896)
Crime and Punishment(+) Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
August 2020:
Happiness is An Inside Job(+) Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007)
It's Easier Than You Think(+) Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (1995)
Don't Just Do Something, Sit There(+) Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (1996)
Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake(+) Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2003)
September 2020:
Prometheus Rising(=) Robert Anton Wilson (1983)
The Secret History(++) Donna Tartt (1992)
The Razor's Edge(+) W. Somerset Maugham (1944)
November 2020:
Ulysses(1/2) James Joyce (1922)
December 2020:
The Voyage Out(++) Virginia Woolf, (1915)
January 2021:
Mrs. Dalloway(+) Virginia Woolf, (1925)
February 2021:
Tropic of Cancer(+) Henry Miller, (1934)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X(+) Alex Haley, (1965)
March 2021:
Dracula Bram Stoker, (1897)
Lives Plutarch, (2nd Cent. AD)
April 2021:
Best American Essays 2000 ed. Alan Lightman, (2000)
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath, (1963)
June 2021
Burmese Days, George Orwell (1934)
July 2021:
The Clergyman's Daughter George Orwell (1935)
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell, (1936)
August 2021:
1984, George Orwell, (1949)
Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
SEPTEMBER 2021
Essays in Pessimism, Schopenhauer, (1917)
The Diamond Sutra, Bhudda, ???
JULY 2022
War and Peace, Tolstoy 1869
The widest land . . .
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double. What I do
And what I dream include thee, as the wine
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes the tears of two.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance", Essays: First Series, 1841
"On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel. Deferential palms cool its flushed façade, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach."
Tender is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1933
"In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul."
Dune, Frank Herbert, 1965
“When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventyifirst birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
The Fellowship of The Ring, Tolkien, 1954
"THE SNOW in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation."
The Secret History, Donna Tartt, 1992
"The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended."
2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clark 1968
