31. Catch 22 to 47. Sputnik Sweetheart
God, I'm awful. Sorry about the three-month wait, but I honestly haven't had time to update. In between working a 9 hour day, going to Portugal, going to university and coming home, I've barely found time to read, let alone write reviews.
Thus, here is a list of what I've read, as I can remember them.
31. Catch 22
32. Dickens and Women
33. Silas Marner
34. Middlemarch: from notebook to novel
35. The Nun Priest's Tale
36. Beoulf
37. AElfric's life of St Edmund
38. George Eliot tThrough Her Letters
39. Culture and Anarchy
40. The Victorian Frame of Mind
41. In Memoriam
42. Dicken's Selected Journalism
43. Daniel Deronda
44. Robert Browning's Collected Poems
45. Writing Reality
Those are all for my course. As for my own enjoyment, in the week I've been home;
Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Author: Milan Kundera
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities in which Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being', offering a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations. First published in 1984, Kundera's masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy and was at once hailed by critics as a contemporary classic.
My thoughts: I did intend to read this book much earlier, but the density of the first few pages put me off. (Shameful, I know, but it's very hard to bring yourself to care when you have only 30 minutes to rest in, and all you can focus on is how much your feet ache. ) However, since now I am the archetypal, home-for-the-holidays student, rather than the typical rushed-off-her-feet-reading-heat-magazine-and-eating waitress, I decided to try again.
And I'm so glad I did. I've been incredibly lucky, over the last few years, to be able to find books which I need to read at that particular time, when I need to read them. The books follows the lives of two couples, but takes a detour in detailing the Prauge Spring, life in a communist country, and living life in general. It's a book I'd find hard to describe, to be honest, not that I haven't already reccomended it to a friend. IThis is turning out to be a shit review, but it's what I do every week in tutorials, so forgive me. I just love books which deal with the dynamics between people, that nature of how we think. And I loved the presence of the author. I thought I would hate it, or it would grate on me, but it made the characters and the story more vivid.
And juding by the amount of pages I've dotted in pencil to mark favourite passages, it's going to be something I read again.
Title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) The narrator, a teacher, is in love with the beguiling, odd Sumire. As his best friend, she is not adverse to phoning at three or four in the morning to ask a pointless question or share a strange thought. Sumire, though, is in love with a beautiful, older woman, Miu, who does not, can not, return her affections. Longing for Sumire, K (that is all we are told by way of a name) finds some comfort in a purely sexual relationship with the mother of one of his pupils. But the consolation is slight. K is unhappy. Miu and Sumire, now working together, take a business trip to a Greek Island. Something happens, he is not told what, and so K travels to Greece to see what help he can offer.
My thoughts: Okay, so I sort of love Murakami. A little bit. And once again, I found the book I needed, when I needed it. As I said above, I adore books which deal with dynamics, and relationships, and what isn't actually said. And this book does. The three characters at the heart of the novel, Sumire, Miu and K. are probably some of the most vivid characters I've encountered in a Murakami novel, although Toru of Norwegian Wood probably comes close. It's probably slight narccism on my part, the joy of seeing myself reflect, but that quiet, unspoken thought is perfect for me. I'd just like to encounter in a female Murakami character; I wonder whether there are any?
Not to say that I don't like his women, they seem so much more mysterious and intensely felt than his men, for the most part. Sumire, in this novel, is what I would have aspired to a few years ago. What happens to her begs the question, what would I do if one of the people I loved dearest just dissapeared? And what will I do when they do, when our paths no longer run parallel?
Up next: Far too much, mostly for uni. Bronte sisters, Gothic, Oscar Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Eliot.
Thus, here is a list of what I've read, as I can remember them.
31. Catch 22
32. Dickens and Women
33. Silas Marner
34. Middlemarch: from notebook to novel
35. The Nun Priest's Tale
36. Beoulf
37. AElfric's life of St Edmund
38. George Eliot tThrough Her Letters
39. Culture and Anarchy
40. The Victorian Frame of Mind
41. In Memoriam
42. Dicken's Selected Journalism
43. Daniel Deronda
44. Robert Browning's Collected Poems
45. Writing Reality
Those are all for my course. As for my own enjoyment, in the week I've been home;
Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Author: Milan Kundera
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities in which Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being', offering a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations. First published in 1984, Kundera's masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy and was at once hailed by critics as a contemporary classic.
My thoughts: I did intend to read this book much earlier, but the density of the first few pages put me off. (Shameful, I know, but it's very hard to bring yourself to care when you have only 30 minutes to rest in, and all you can focus on is how much your feet ache. ) However, since now I am the archetypal, home-for-the-holidays student, rather than the typical rushed-off-her-feet-reading-heat-magazine-and-eating waitress, I decided to try again.
And I'm so glad I did. I've been incredibly lucky, over the last few years, to be able to find books which I need to read at that particular time, when I need to read them. The books follows the lives of two couples, but takes a detour in detailing the Prauge Spring, life in a communist country, and living life in general. It's a book I'd find hard to describe, to be honest, not that I haven't already reccomended it to a friend. IThis is turning out to be a shit review, but it's what I do every week in tutorials, so forgive me. I just love books which deal with the dynamics between people, that nature of how we think. And I loved the presence of the author. I thought I would hate it, or it would grate on me, but it made the characters and the story more vivid.
And juding by the amount of pages I've dotted in pencil to mark favourite passages, it's going to be something I read again.
Title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) The narrator, a teacher, is in love with the beguiling, odd Sumire. As his best friend, she is not adverse to phoning at three or four in the morning to ask a pointless question or share a strange thought. Sumire, though, is in love with a beautiful, older woman, Miu, who does not, can not, return her affections. Longing for Sumire, K (that is all we are told by way of a name) finds some comfort in a purely sexual relationship with the mother of one of his pupils. But the consolation is slight. K is unhappy. Miu and Sumire, now working together, take a business trip to a Greek Island. Something happens, he is not told what, and so K travels to Greece to see what help he can offer.
My thoughts: Okay, so I sort of love Murakami. A little bit. And once again, I found the book I needed, when I needed it. As I said above, I adore books which deal with dynamics, and relationships, and what isn't actually said. And this book does. The three characters at the heart of the novel, Sumire, Miu and K. are probably some of the most vivid characters I've encountered in a Murakami novel, although Toru of Norwegian Wood probably comes close. It's probably slight narccism on my part, the joy of seeing myself reflect, but that quiet, unspoken thought is perfect for me. I'd just like to encounter in a female Murakami character; I wonder whether there are any?
Not to say that I don't like his women, they seem so much more mysterious and intensely felt than his men, for the most part. Sumire, in this novel, is what I would have aspired to a few years ago. What happens to her begs the question, what would I do if one of the people I loved dearest just dissapeared? And what will I do when they do, when our paths no longer run parallel?
Up next: Far too much, mostly for uni. Bronte sisters, Gothic, Oscar Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Eliot.