Antti

I'm impressed more and more with Mishima. The two works I've now had the pleasure to acquaint with, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea and now this, are singular works, Mishima's prose full of power, beauty and life. I'm going to visit the golden pavilion first before embarking on a journey to the sea of fertility. I can't wait.

The Sound of Waves is a coming-of-age story, a Romeo and Juliet of forbidden love, a social study of a closed island community like Imamura's Profound Desires of the Gods, a predestined Greek tragedy with the interference of the deus ex machina, and ultimately a very strong statement of Mishima's acute sense for the artful. His descriptions are alive with feeling for that which can be touched and that which can only be dreamed in silence; the characters are formed with broad brushstrokes, and come to life first as if from afar, then more and more in detail. And, it's as if Mishima wanted to show that once in a while, there is love and contentment, and happiness.

It's not easy to write economically and with clarity, and convey what's important. It's always easier to wander off a bit on the way instead of going straight ahead. Mishima certainly knows how to, and that's what brings such an edge to his writing. This is an author who seems to know what he's saying and why, a rare gift indeed.

28 October,
2014

In 2019 I read a lot of books (I've never read more than 100 books per year before), but this year I'll try to slow down, consciously, and take my time with some of the bigger books I've been meaning to read for years. Firstly, I want to finally read Joseph and His Brothers, and if that goes well, I'd like to either finish The Story of the Stone or start rereading In Search of Lost Time.

I'd like to continue treading Discworld (I'm up to Hogfather right now), and maybe some Tolkien, too, but we'll see. I'll go through The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin with a friend in a book club, so that's all set. Whether I'll get to reading The History of Middle-Earth remains to be seen.

I often have grand plans to also reread most of Pynchon's works, but as you can see, there are already quite a few ambitious titles on my list.

I will continue reading to my kids, so my list in 2020 will include quite a few of them, I'll also reread Harry Potter as I've done now on a yearly basis. Whether I'll get to rereading some Shakespeare is up for grabs. I'd say not likely.

Update 1 (July 9th): The year is already halfway done (what a thought!) and I've now read 59 books. Way more than what I originally thought, but also way different. I did start reading Joseph and His Brothers, and gave up after about 100 pages. One for the future. I haven't continued The Story of the Stone although that one I'm thinking about a lot, and I actually started rereading Proust, and finished the first two volumes quite quickly. I'm now in the middle of the third, and will return to it at some point.

I have read lots of Discworld, and it's actually quite possible I'll finish the series by year's end. Just started Night Watch today, so the end is nigh. I don't now whether I want it to end, though.

I did touch Mason & Dixon in May, reread about halfway through, and somehow lost interest. What I picked up instead were some gorgeous novels, though, including The Dragons, the Giant, The Women, Homegoing and, especially, The Underground Railroad that I hadn't read before this. The Nickel Boys I read as soon as it was published last year, and Railroad was even better. Every bit deserving its modern classic status.

I've read some Merwin, revisited Garden Time, of course, and raid The Rain In The Trees. Thich Nhat Hanh has received his share of love, and I'm actually reading his collection of poetry at the moment. I read The Poetry of Impermance, Mindfulness and Joy, which has done its part to reignite my joy for poetry. Encouraged by the selection of poems in that book, I've been reading A. R. Ammons and Billy Collins.

What about 2020, Part 2? I really expect to finish the Discworld. I'm already planning on rereading my favorites, since it's been about 2,5 years worth of reading lots of other books, too. I've been on the fence with Brandon Sanderson. I have the three Stormlight books, and since the fourth one is to be published this Fall, I just might commit.

Ken Follett has a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth coming up, but I still have the third book to read. Since it is a prequel, however, I don't think the third book is required reading just yet. I could just save it up for last, and feel all important and trendy by reading a freshly published book.

Update 2 (November 8th): The year is drawing to a close. Surprisingly enough, I've put Discworld on hold for the time being, after failing to get involved with The Wee Free Men and Going Postal, two of the most acclaimed Discworld novels. Maybe my Pratchett quota is full at the moment, or maybe the series is drifting away from the kind of things I like. I tried Monstrous Regiment and gave up, I even tried Thud!, skipping to the Watch series, knowing that it's my favorite cast of characters in Pratchett, and still couldn't get myself going. Well, maybe next year.

I read some Ammons and Collins, but that was enough. During the summer months I was in need of lighter fare and ended up reading some books in the Lemony Snicket series. I then tackled some Stormlight Archives fare with The Way of Kings, and loved it. I was happy to find a fast-paced, interesting fantasy series to get myself into, and what with Rhythm of War to be published in November, this would be the time get myself up to date. But guess what? Words of Radiance turned out be such a bore. Predictable. I guess it's my problem with many mainstream authors, including Stephen King: when I get acquainted with their style, which is more about tolerating it rather than enjoying it, I will grow tired of it when the story isn't capable of carrying me through the book. I abandoned Sanderson, since it's that's apparently the way he does things. And gosh, I couldn't stand the predictability with which Shallan was thrown around places.

To be honest, I was in a reading funk after this. August and much of September went by with my readings with my children, and some manga, which I chose so that I would read something, but I wasn't trying to force anything longer or complicated. Only in early October I got back into reading novels, starting with The Devotion of Suspect X, which I had started in early June but was way too tired to enjoy. This time around I devoured it, loved it, and immediately went on to read the other two Detective Galileos in translation. While not as good as the first one, they were fine, especially A Midsummer's Equation. But I have no desire to more Higashino for the time being.

Higashino was my doorway back into reading, however, and I raced through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which gave me that sense of thrill and wonder a good, imaginative and singular book can give. I'll definitely read more Murakami soon. I still haven't read The Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World, so that's my next stop with him.

Now I've been reading the English translations for the Legends of the Condor Heroes, now consisting of three volumes. I enjoyed A Hero Born immensely, and read through it in only a few days. Now I'm reading A Bond Undone, and I think I'll read the third volume before year's end.

As for the rest of the year, I'm giving Obama's A Promised Land a try when it's published. I'm not the biggest reader of political autobiography, so let's see how far I'll go with this one, but I have to admit that four years of Trump and Biden's win this week have whet my appetite: not only to remind me that not all presidents are as crude as sycophantic as Trump, but also that Biden will definitely take politics back into a more civil direction. Despite the conspiracy theorists. (Which reminds be that I should reread some Pynchon, whose conspiracy theories are at least fun — and they stay on the shelf!)

I also realized quite late in the game that Charlie Kaufman has published his debut novel in the spring. I really want to read Antkind (I always misspell that as Antman by the way), but I'm a bit wary that it's harder going than I'd like at the moment. Maybe I have to save it for a holiday read when I'm not so strained by work.

Well, let's see in late December what happened.

Amazing! I have rarely loathed a book this much. A mess of narrative non sequiturs. A great example of an embarrassing deus ex machina. Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. No humor, no heart, no sense of direction. I did wonder whether this would turn out to be an intentional, Pythonesque literary hoax and it would all resolve itself in a climax of... something?

I tried reading The Wizards of Once, had to give up after 100 pages because it was too painful. I thought this might be better. Yuck! Obviously this author is not my cup of sake.

Elton John and Alexis Petridis's Me is a pretty marvelous (auto)biography. While Elton John has lived a life that's almost larger than any life can possibly be, there's a great deal of personality in this book. He's candid about his failings, and instead of pointing the finger he more often than not takes a good look in the mirror. He comes off as wonderfully humane, not a two-dimensional product of a writer's team that is scared of tarnishing a reputation. The book is chock-full of self-deprecation and introspection, and since it's seeped in sarcasm and irony, it succeeds in being funny and truthful at the same time, which is not an easy feat to accomplish.

The chapters on how he lost many friends to AIDS were the most gut-wrenching, and I read those through listening to The Last Song on repeat. His take on fame and the bubble in which one lives is levelheaded, and taking into consideration his extravagant drug use, alcoholism and consumerism, is clearly that of a person who's learned through trial and error. There's a huge amount of namedropping, which isn't the least surprising if you're a rock star who has lived through the golden age of modern rock music, and there are some amazing anecdotes (my favorite funny moment was how he and Rod Steward always pranked each other, and how it once escalated in Elton John calling his people to shoot down that blimp), but the most memorable was his depiction of the moment he finally met Elvis Presley face-to-face, and how shocked and saddened he was to meet the King in such disarray. The book succeeds in this so well: it's a joy to read because it flows so well, and there are laugh-out-loud funny bits almost on every page, and yet it's able to make a complete U-turn and get serious. Elton John's infectuously exuberant personality shines through the page, and Petridis's writing and editing skills obviously contribute to this greatly.

And finally, there are so many artists and songs mentioned in the book that makes it a treasure trove for music fans. I for one will be eternally grateful to have learned about Beth Nielsen Chapman's beautiful Sand and Water.

I absolutely loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, so my excitement for The Mirror & The Light was on par with many of yours. I ordered the 4th Estate hardback, got the Kindle edition and Audible audiobook as soon as they became available, and got going.

I'm putting this on hold for the time being. I'm almost 200 pages in, and it's been quite a slog. The first two books had such fervent momentum going on that I'm finding it quite difficult to get this one going.

I'm rereading Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and loving every page of it (halfway through the second volume after starting the first one in late February), which offers an interesting counterpoint to my experiences so far with this book. I'll return to this later, maybe in the summer.