Thursday, March 31, 2011

John Donne: 1572--March 31, 1631

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One of the common themes of Elizabethan and Renaissance love poetry was the unfaithfulness of the opposite sex. Many poems by male poets be...
2 comments:
Monday, March 28, 2011

Ecclesiastes: The Good Life

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Some Christian sects seem to take a gloomy view of life: the earth is a source of sin and corruption and a trap for the good Christian. I ...
4 comments:
Saturday, March 26, 2011

Robert Frost: March 26, 1874 --Jan 29, 1963

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While browsing through Frost's Collected Poems , this poem jumped out at me. It was an interesting poem in its own right, it reminded m...
4 comments:
Friday, March 25, 2011

Brian Aldiss' "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" --a short story

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"Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" is an intriguing short story by Brian Aldiss for several reasons. First, it's an interesti...
21 comments:
Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Robert Grudin and Yasunari Kawabata

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I find that while reading I frequently am reminded of something similar, sometimes from another book or sometimes from a film. In this case...
2 comments:
Monday, March 21, 2011

Kim Stanley Robinson: The Wild Shore (concl)

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Spoiler Warning: the following will bring out some important plot elements and hints about the ending. Sometimes I think it's harder fo...
Friday, March 18, 2011

Wallace Stevens: "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock

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I wouldn't say that Wallace Stevens is one of my favorite poets, but, to be honest, I really haven't read very many of his poems. ...
2 comments:
Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Han-shan or Cold Mountain

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Han-shan was a hermit poet who lived sometime during the late 8th century and early 9th century. No one is certain about his dates, just as...
2 comments:
Sunday, March 13, 2011

Progress Report: 2011 New Year's Resolution

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Perhaps I should title this Lack of Progress Report instead. I had resolved to reduce the number of books in my TBR bookcase by reading at...
Friday, March 11, 2011

Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha

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Hermann Hesse Siddhartha , a novel When I picked up Siddhartha , I expected to find a more or less fictionalized treatment of the life of...
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXXVIII

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Perhaps the bleakest quatrain of all--at least the bleakest one so far. First Edition: Quatrain XXXVIII One Moment in Annihilation's Wa...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Something to think about

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No. 2 A poignant dissatisfaction, whatever be its cause, is at bottom a dissatisfaction with ourselves. It is surprising how much hardship ...
Sunday, March 6, 2011

Tales of Times Now Past: stories from a medieval Japanese collection

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Tales of Times Now Past: Sixty-two Stories from a Medieval Japanese Collection Edited and translated by Marian Ury Introduction by Marian ...
2 comments:
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Kim Stanley Robinson: The Wild Shore, Pt. 1

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I have finally managed to get some reading done in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore , the first novel in what I call "The Cal...
Sunday, February 27, 2011

Lawrence Durrell: February 27, 1912--November 7, 1990

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A Bowl of Roses 'Spring' says your Alexandrian poet 'Means time of the remission of the rose' Now here at this tattered...
Saturday, February 26, 2011

Theodore Sturgeon: February 26, 1918--May 8. 1985

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I have just discovered great news for those who, like me, think Ted Sturgeon is one of the great American short story writers--regardless of...
2 comments:
Thursday, February 24, 2011

Loren Eiseley: "The Shore Haunters"

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The Shore Haunters Here in this dry, rocky, fired-out place one can still see the subsiding shorelines of a giant lake; one can still ...
Monday, February 21, 2011

Ice, Ice, and More Ice

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Several days ago, I watched a film about a future ice age and its effect on civilization. That reminded me of a novel I had read several we...
2 comments:
Friday, February 18, 2011

Nikos Kazantzakis: Feb. 18, 1885--Oct. 26, 1957

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Unlike some, Kazantzakis tells the reader from the beginning that his biography of Saint Francis is partly a creative or imaginative work. F...
Sunday, February 13, 2011

Three by Bradbury

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I will discuss significant elements and the endings of these stories. These three stories appear in a number of collections and anthologies....