Things I Read: February 2006

"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The First Circle (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, released 1968)

Excellent - one of my favorite books. Solzhenitsyn is simply wonderful.

A bit hard to follow with so many characters, but it’s well worth the effort.

Perspective of prisoners without hope. Even though special prison for the technically skilled.

Many powerful scenes but I think the best was when Nerzhin’s wife visits him – the effect on her, and him.

Camaraderie, tensions among the sharaskas. Their endless discussions, filled with literary/learned references. Zek life. References to WWII. Stalin and the other officials – their own terrors. Working on the encoder (Rubin).

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726)

Finally caught up with this classic. The objects of the author's satires can be guessed at somewhat but it would be helpful to have footnotes or some other form of readers' guide to assist.

Lilliput; Brobdingnag; the floating government; the marvelous Houyhnhnms; the repulsive Yahoos; etc.

Didn't do much for me.