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The Classics Club: Completed!
Five years ago, I decided to join an online challenge called The Classics Club, the goal of which was to read fifty classic novels in a five-year period. For the purposes of this list, I defined a classic as any book written mid-century or earlier. I always enjoyed reading classics in school, but I went almost my entire twenties without reading anything older than a decade or two, outside of university assignments. I didn’t really expect to finish this, or even still be blogging by this time, but here we are. I actually read the fiftieth book about half a year ago, but I decided to carry on to the…
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Ex Libris
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman Published: 2000 Length: 162 pages I love books about books, but this is probably the first time I’ve read one so purely about the love of reading. Ex Libris is a collection of essays about the reading, storing, and sharing of books, something I imagine many people would find incredibly dull, but I love it. If you’re someone who spends their spare time reading book blogs, you probably will too. It begins with one of my favourite essays, Marrying Libraries, which recounts the compromises and sacrifices that go into the merging of two personal libraries. The bookshelves in the Loose…
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Gourmet Rhapsody
Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery Published: 2000 Narrated by: Full cast Translated By: Alison Anderson (from French in 2009) Length: 04:03 (160 pages) A renown Parisian food critic, the greatest alive, is on his deathbed. He’s lived a life of eating, where food mattered more than the people around him, and in his last hours he strives to find comfort in that passion by tracing his memories back to the truest taste of his life, in an attempt to experience it again before he’s gone. This is presented as a series of vignettes, short scenes from his life. Half of the chapters are from his point of view as he…
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Sleeping Giants
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel Published: 2016 Narrated by: full cast Series: Themis Files #1 Length: 08:28 (304 pages) A young girl falls through the earth and lands cradled in a giant metallic hand. Seventeen years later, that woman is now a brilliant physicist leading a research team to discover the mystery behind the discovery. When they find another body part buried in another area of the world, there’s a new goal: to reconstruct. I really enjoyed this. It’s written as a series of interviews, similar to World War Z, except the interviews take place as the story progresses rather than looking back afterwards. Some chapters are solo journal entries…
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February in Review
Books Acquired: Jesting Pilate by Aldous Huxley Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins Books Read: The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman I hadn’t heard of Jesting Pilate before, but it’s a travelogue from Aldous Huxley that details his trip through multiple countries, from India to America (I believe). Classic travel writing can be a lot of fun (travel before planes or hotel reviews, shock and horror), so I’m looking forward to this. Acceptance I picked up to complete the trilogy, although I still haven’t read the second book yet, so…