reading
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Satisfying or Beneficial?
A thinker who made interesting contributions to the discussions of conservatism is John Kekes. He makes a very important point which is that conservatives define what it means to live a good life based on how one’s course of actions corresponds to the existing moral order. This moral order exists in reality and outside of… Continue reading
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Book Notes: Rafael Chirbes’s Mimoun
Mimoun, the first novel of the great Spanish writer Chirbes, has been, in my opinion, completely misunderstood by critics. In the novel, a depressive Spanish novelist moves to Morocco and dedicates himself to getting drunk, drugged and having sex with every Muslim man and woman, as well as every colleague, neighbor, and crossing sweeper he… Continue reading
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Vargas Llosa’s The Civilization of Spectacle
I’m reading Vargas Llosa’s The Civilization of Spectacle and feeling very confused. The central idea of the text is that high culture has been banished to the margins and now only interests a tiny minority of the world’s population. This is undoubtedly true. The problem I have with the text is that this has been… Continue reading
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How do you decide what book to read next?
Joshua Kim’s article in Inside Higher Ed made me consider this question. Here is the answer Kim provides: I always go first to nytimes.com/books . A good review attached to a subject that I’m interested in, or an author that I like, will almost always result in a purchase (as an Amazon Audible audiobook or a Kindle… Continue reading
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>Art or Entertainment? A Review of Franzen’s Freedom, Part I
I didn’t buy Jonathan’s Franzen’s Freedom because of some spat this writer apparently had with Oprah. Nor did I buy it because, according to rumors, President Obama was so eager to read it that he rushed to the publishing house to get an advance copy. I also did not buy it because of the comparisons many… Continue reading
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>Living Oprah by Robyn Okrant: A Review
>A review from an anonymous guest blogger: I must admit I was excited when I downloaded Living Oprah on Kindle. I was anticipating one of two things: either a very easy unpretentious read with humorous anecdotes (along the lines of Confessions of a Shopaholic) or more of an investigative account analyzing the Oprah phenomenon from… Continue reading
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>Tana French’s The Likeness: A Review
>I just fnished reading http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=00FF0F&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=clasblo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0143115626. What an absolutely delightful book, my friends! I enjoyed every one of its 480 pages profoundly. Tana French is a young Irish writer. The Likeness is one of those really good books that its female author tries to masquerade as a mystery novel. The mystery itself is not bad, especially… Continue reading
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>Ayn Rand
>The last M/MLA conference where I spoke the day after getting married was good in all respects except one: the book-fair. Normally, I love book-fairs at conferences, but this one looked more like a parody of a regular fair. It was held in the same room where banquets were served to the participants. The abundance… Continue reading
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>Zoe Heller’s The Believers: A Review
>Zoe Heller keeps producing books that could have been great if she had only managed to stick to her original purpose without getting distracted. Her novel What Was She Thinking? : Notes on a Scandal: A Novel was not bad at all, and if you think otherwise, it is probably because you were put off… Continue reading
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>Spanish Newspapers Finally Available on Kindle
>I lost all hope of ever reading any newspapers from Spain on my Kindle a long time ago, so I haven’t even been checking whether Amazon added this possibility or not. It is completely by chance that I discovered that the following newspapers are now available either for subscription or for a purchase of a… Continue reading
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