Bookstores ~ Reading ~ Poetry ~ Quotes ~ Words

Some interesting independent bookstores that I've had the pleasure of browsing:

What I'm Reading

Edward Said--Culture and Imperialism
Only a little way into it, and haven't read any Said before.  But so far, it's fantastic--why haven't I read this before now?  I often wonder about this question--why is it that I read (or in the case of movies, see, or music, hear) a particular book at a particular time, even though I've been aware of it for some time?  I've heard about Said for years, and have read a bit about him at various times, but never delved very deeply.  However, as on many other occasions, reading him right now is exactly the right time for me--my thinking has evolved in many areas just enough to be able to make sense of his arguments (and to largely agree with them, I might add).

David Fromkin--The Peace To End All Peace
My dad gave me this for Christmas '01--an appropriate time if there ever was or will be one.  First off, although dense history, the book reads like a thriller--well, I thought so anyway.  Fromkin covers a limited timeframe--roughly from just before WWI to just after it--1914 to 1922 or so--but what a time it was!  He basically details the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the relationships among European and Middle Eastern countries during that period, ending with the fatal decisions that the WWI victors made that determined the fate of the Middle East to this day.  There are many interesting elements in this book, not least the events swirling around Turkey as it attempted to move from decrepitude to the 20th century with the emergence of the "young Turks" and eventually Ataturk.  The fate of the Holy Land gets generous treatment, and the source of today's Israeli-Palestinian conflict is clearly presented.  It's a fascinating read--I know all too little about this history--and is highly recommended.

Orhan Pamuk--My Name Is Red
Miniature painting was a big deal several hundred years ago in the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and neighboring areas.  Pamuk spins a whodunnit around a group of miniaturists in this fabulous novel set in Istanbul in the 16th century.  The advent of perspective in Italy and elsewhere in Europe was causing a commotion in the East:  painting with perspective meant that man was becoming ever closer to God, depicting perfection better left to God (or so some thought).  Thus, when the Sultan wants a group of his miniaturists to paint depictions of scenes using perspective, some nasty events transpire when not all of the miniaturists think this is a good idea.  Woven throughout the intrigue is a fairly sorrowful love story. The book describes various ways power can be attained, concentrated, and used.  It's a remarkable read, a bit slow going initially (Pamuk makes liberal use of literary devices such as writing from various perspectives without clearly identifying who is doing the thinking, talking, acting--but that's part of the fun of it.  Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.  Highly recommended. As luck would have it, I visited the Metropolitan Museum in NYC just weeks after finishing the book, and spent some time in the miniature collection in the Islamic Art section of the museum...it was simply fantastic. Imagine how those folks painted the incredible detail--amazing!

Jose Saramago--Blindness

Maria Vargas Llosa--In Praise of the Stepmother

Jane Hamilton--A Short History of a Prince

Toni Morrison--The Song of Solomon

Noam Chomsky--The Chomsky Reader
    Chomsky takes on all comers, and it's hard to argue with the facts.  Although his public activism has focussed mainly on such well-thought out US activities as Central American terrorism and the Vietnam debacle, the general arguments he presents have relevance to most fields of inquiry.  The state-together with the media and the corporate world-makes certain opinions legitimate, including the allowable dissenting viewpoints.  If you don't take either the accepted line from the state or one of its sanctioned opposing views, your comments are just not entered into the debate.  This reminds me of a This Modern World cartoon from several years ago in which two commentators are side-by-side in each of two panels.  In the top panel, labeled "Wrong", one commentator says (paraphrasing from memory) "We should drop a bomb on them," while the second says "We should not be bombing them at all."  In the bottom panel, labeled "Right", the first says "We should drop a bomb on them" while the second says "No, we should drop 5 bombs on them."  Even though this is this contrary to what we perceive as democracy, it is widespread and dangerous.  To see how factual this is in a recent event, the Gulf War, see the New Yorker article by Seymour Hirsh discussed above.  Perhaps the best part of the book is Chomsky's discussion of sports:  Why can average folks discuss sports with amazing dexterity, developing intricate theories about why a team won or lost, but yet the same people have at best a cursory view of world affairs.  Sports is a national anaesthetic, which makes everyone forget about the big world issues that they feel powerless to confront, and instead allows them to only consider a game with no real impacts which is fun.  Sad state of affairs.

Jared Diamond--Guns, Germs, and Steel
  A tour de force!  Diamond does the nearly impossible:  making a story about the emergence of agriculture, language, and culture a nail-biter.  You won't be able to put it down, I guarantee it.  The really interesting lesson is that the dominant civilizations arose where they did, and the historical record is the way it is, due primarily to luck....a direct renunciation of The Bell Curve type arguments.

Larry McMurtry--Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen
    Part memoir, part commentary on the world, on book collecting, and on life, this quick read is simply fantastic.  I found much to enjoy, partly because like McMurtry I grew up farming, and also like McMurtry, I tended to want to read rather than do constant farm chores.  McMurtry thinks he's still a cowboy--herding words on a page, or cars up I-35.  This was the first place I ever heard of Agnes Martin; he compares the prairie to her paintings...both are subtle, and require patience and careful observation for their wonders to be unveiled.  Check it out.

Rick Bass--The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness
    If you haven't read Bass, you're missing the greatest American short-story writer living.  This book of novellas is outstanding, particularly the title story, which ranks among the best reading I've ever done.  Concerning a family's land in south Texas, the novella touches on ranching, environmentalism, family, and above all, an overarching love-of-place.  I've rarely been so moved by literature as I was reading this.

William Faulkner--Absalom, Absalom
  I am willing to say that this is the best book I've ever read; I'm pretty sure it's my favorite Faulkner, though I need to reread The Sound and the Fury to make sure (I was too young to pick up everything in that one the first time through).

Marcel Proust--Swann's Way
  This is a work in progress.  I actually plan to get through all of "In Search of Lost Time" eventually.  Proust's writing tastes, smells, and feels so spectacular, even in translation, that I'm savoring each sentence, and in some ways don't want to finish.  Shelby Foote says in a letter to Walker Percy [an excellent book, by the way is the correspondence of these two Southerners]--actually he mentions Proust many times--that he has read the whole 5 or 6 times.  Amazing.

Friedrich Nietzsche--Thus Spoke Zarathustra
    Zarathustra speaks on so many topics, with such candor and insight, that he must be read and examined closely.  I highly recommend this, even to religious folks.  He (N) has lots to say.

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