On Reading
Okay, listing On Reading, André Kertész's classic volume of photographs from the mid-20th century, as my 8th completed book of the year feels like cheating. The only reading involved was the brief introduction, and the dates and locations listed in the back.
I have no integrity, it's clear.
Kertész was a Hungarian photographer, who moved to Paris in 1925, and then moved to New York in 1936. Over time he accumulated a series of pictures of people (mostly) reading, in various venues. The pictures are lovely, often surprising, and excellent objects for meditation.
My special favorites are the picture of a Parisian cow reading Paris-Midi over the shoulder of bereted man (p. 24), an American beetle reading Voltaire (p. 70) in the original, a Venetian gondolier reading by the side of a canal (p. 30), and the top-hatted young lady (p. 17) reading behind the scenes of the Paris Carnival.
Some of the photographs are of libraries, or bookshelves, without any readers in the frame. They are very effective.
Norton brought this out again, better reproduced than the original volume, in 2008. I came across the traveling show at the Carnegie, which is how I come to own the book.
Classic.
CBsIP: Claims for Poetry, Donald Hall, ed.
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, Vol. I, P. H. Sheridan
The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed.
Surface Detail, Iain Banks
A Light in the Attic, Shel Silverstein
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections on Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould
Writing Down the Bones (expanded edition), Natalie Goldberg
Plutarch's Lives, Plutarch