Which books sit on your nightstand?

[doc benway]

I'm in a bit of a reading frenzy lately, mostly fiction.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami was very sweet and well written, his only foray into "normal" fiction, nothing surreal or fantastical just a Murakami style love story.

Erasure by Percival Everett was interesting. It was the inspiration for the film American Fiction. The book within the book was a bit of a sickening slog, by design, and almost put me off but I'm glad I finished it. The ending was perfect. 

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr was an engaging and clever story about a story and how it stretches across millennia, impacting the lives of multiple characters. 

The Vegetarian by Han Kang was unique and unpredictable, she won the Nobel in Literature this year - highly recommended.

In the middle of listening to Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kamerer right now - beautiful book of indigenous and botanical wisdom. It's nice to hear it narrated by the author, it gives a feeling of intimacy which works well with the subject matter.

Also in the middle of Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor - a brutally poetic, stream of consciousness tale about the death of a bruja in a fictional, impoverished town in Veracruz, Mexico told from 4 different perspectives. Reminiscent of Rashomon by way of Faulkner or Joyce.

Nearly at the end of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, the slow read that began on 1/1/24 - a chapter a day for a year. It's been a wonderful experience overall though the book certainly has its ups and downs. The repetitive, pedantic criticism of historians gets a little tiresome but Tolstoy's craft is undeniably brilliant. I only wish I could read the original Russian. 

 

 

[doc benway]

I decided not to finish Hurricane Season, I've learned that life is too short to read books I'm not enjoying.

Currently in the middle of There, There by Tommy Orange and really impressed by his writing.

I would like to read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Burgakov. I cannot read Russian and trying to decide which English translation to buy. Leaning towards the one by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor.

 

[Sir Darius the Clairvoyent]

Read the alchemist as a child, enjoyed it. Planing on reading it again, an see if I can get a deeper understanding 

[doc benway]

Finished the last chapter of War and Peace today after a year long slow read hosted on Substack by Simon Haisell with Footnoteds and Tangents, recommended by @liminal_luke. Thanks Luke!

It was a wonderful experience and will be starting again (for the final time) on January 1, 2025.

I liked it so much that I will be doing one or two slow reads in the coming year (thinking about The Divine Comedy and possibly adding Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey).

 

Just started reading James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Twain's Huck Finn through the eyes of Jim.

I loved his book Erasure which was made into the film American Fiction.

 

[Keith108]

My books live in my kindle, which I use on my iPad, which gets charged on my nightstand. 

 

Relevant to this forum, I've been re-reading Yang JW's book translation and commentary on the Dao De Jing, in which he also interprets  with a Qigong viewpoint. Up to chapter 45 now; enjoying the read. 

 

_/|\_

 

 

[oak]

[doc benway]

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a poem in the form of the novel. 

I've tried writing some thoughts about it this morning but they seem so pretentious and inadequate.

Perhaps it is enough to say that on finishing the book last night at 2am, I wanted nothing more than to get in my car and drive the 1,000 miles to Iowa to thank him and hug him. 

 

 

 

[idiot_stimpy]

[doc benway]

Just finished Question 7 by Richard Flanagan. What a great read! One of the things I really like is how it was influenced by the Yolnju language, in particular its use of a fourth tense which is neither past, present, nor future, but more a suggestion of the continuity of life, living, and connection, outside temporal limitations.

 

Edited February 26 by doc benway

[doc benway]

Emily Dickinson Collected Poems, 

 

The Secret

 

Some things that fly there be,—
Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:
Of these no elegy.

Some things that stay there be,—
Grief, hills, eternity:
Nor this behooveth me.

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!

[silent thunder]

9 hours ago, doc benway said:

Emily Dickinson Collected Poems, 

 

The Secret

 

Some things that fly there be,—
Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:
Of these no elegy.

Some things that stay there be,—
Grief, hills, eternity:
Nor this behooveth me.

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!

[doc benway]

Slowly working my way through a marvelous, mostly contemporary, poetry anthology, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World. Padraig O Tuama, an Irish poet, curated the selections and wrote a brief essay on each. For anyone who is intimidated or bored by poetry, this collection could change your mind (or not.. ). There is a second collection I haven’t read yet as well as a wonderful podcast that gave birth to the collections, Poetry Unbound - a part of the On Being project of Krista Tippett.

 

One of my favorites so far from the book is Wishing Well by Gregory Pardlo - https://onbeing.org/poetry/wishing-well/

 

Another poem worth checking out from the podcast (not in the book) is Gimaazinibii’amoon (A Message to You), written and sung by the author Margaret Noodin in Anishinaabemowin and recited in English - https://onbeing.org/programs/margaret-noodin-gimaazinibiiamoon-a-message-to-you/.

There is also an interview with the author here - https://onbeing.org/programs/bonus-a-conversation-with-margaret-noodin/

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22 by doc benway

[Nungali]

 

 

" Contrary to what you may think, local Aboriginal people did not lose their culture and die out within decades of Governor Phillip's arrival in Sydney in 1788.

Aboriginal people are prominent in accounts of early colonial Sydney, yet we seem to skip a century as they disappear from the historical record, re-emerging early in the twentieth century. What happened to Sydney's indigenous people between the devastating impact of white settlement and increased government intervention a century later?

Hidden in Plain View shows that Aboriginal people did not disappear. They may have been ignored in colonial narratives but maintained a strong bond with the coast and its resources and tried to live on their own terms.

This original and important book tells this powerful story through individuals, and brings a poorly understood period of Sydney's shared history back into view. Its readers will never look at Sydney in the same way.

Paul Irish has breathed new life into people written out of history. – Stan Grant 

This landmark book will open your eyes to the enduring Aboriginal history of Sydney, a story which was there all along, a story that changes everything. – Grace Karskens ."

[Taomeow]

Been listening to a sci-fi audiobook that among other things has this scenario of a contact with an alien civilization.  The aliens seem to behave like they're the devil, and are deemed impossible to coexist with because their logic is incomprehensible to us.  They kill and torture, then apologize profusely, offer reparations, shower the people of planet Earth with gifts of extremely high value.  They solemnly sign agreements, substantiate them by revealing to us all the vulnerabilities of their home planet, then immediately attack and destroy everything the agreement said they would honor.  To everyone's puzzlement, studying the aliens' history reveals they had never been a warlike people, and now all of a sudden all hell breaks loose when they deal with people of Earth.  

 

Eventually the main protagonist manages to figure out what their incomprehensible logic is all about.  Culturally, the aliens are just so wired that "beauty," "kindness" and "keeping it real/truthful" are synonyms to them.  Beauty is their main pursuit, and doing things that accurately mirror reality is their way of being kind.  So they start doing things people on Earth do because they want to please us, create beauty for us, much like a creative artist is trying to relate to the audience and to please, impress and befriend it.  What they're doing to us is aimed at being the most accurate mirror of what we do to ourselves.  War, torture, betrayal, subjugation, destruction -- alongside love, creativity, courage, all the great things we are intertwined with all the horrible things we are.  To them, killing us all in the final war looks like what we've always been after, and they are willing to go all out to create this ultimate beautiful, kind and accurate reality for us.

Edited Wednesday at 04:33 PM by Taomeow

[Nungali]

To the 'aliens' ; no thanks, we already have one . 

 

( a bloodthirsty life of confusion and destruction )