A Momentary Taste of Being

The Lost Art of Reading --David L. Ulin

The Lost Art of Reading --Why Books Still Matter Sometimes, it seems, we go out of our way to try to show that something we enjoy or appreciate still matters, and yet the attempt in itself almost makes itself redundant.  Of course it matters, but we're preaching to the choir, for the only person likely to read a book about why books and reading matter is a person who is already convinced that they do.  Such a manifesto is unlikely to persuade the nonreader, because said person won't pick it up.  So, it is interesting.  But whatever adds dignity, vision, peace, and harmony to human life matters--and certainly reading CAN do that, even if it does not always.

A foretaste of the John Updike Archive

via Books Inq.  An Appreciation of Sigrid Undse t Not enough good can be said.  And now that there is a one-volume updated and modern translation of Kristin Lavaransdatter , there's no excuse not to be in the know.  (The older translation is passable, but tedious and unfortunately, I suspect that much of the readership of Sigrid Undset has been disoriented by some of the odd choices made in that previous translation.  Beautiful, evocative prose.  I suspect my relative coolness toward Hilary Mantel's book is in part a result of my affection for the rich (and necessary) detail and profound sense of place that Sigrid Undset offers in all of her work.  (Mantel's book is great, but it doesn't "remake the historical novel" as so many have claimed for it. So, spend a little time in Medieval Norway and get to know what another great historical novel is all about.

An essay by David Foster Wallace on John Updike .  I was peripherally aware of this piece, but now that it has come into full consciousness and expresses my thoughts about the several writers mentioned at the beginning, I shall reread and seek to find if Mr. Wallace has expressed my own reservations about Mr. Updike's fiction.

A Conference Next Year--the first. Referred by Mark Athitakis

In the New Yorker An interview from c. 1978, originally published in Croatian.  (Odd, I hadn't been aware that Updike was fluent in Croatian.)

I find that I have far greater tolerance for John Updike in nonfiction than I do in fiction.  I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that mystery; however, until I do, I'll go on enjoying the nonfiction and sharing what I find fascinating. from "Fiction: A Dialogue" in More Matter John Updike Put it this way: Fictional persons are objectifications of actual impression of life received by the author. Because they are not actual, the author is free to invade their privacy and confide to us their thoughts and sensations, however evanescent and trivial. Thus he . . . provides the reader with an image of life more close-textured and vivid than any reality-bound genre, such as history, sociology, and even autobiography can provide. Fiction is realer than real, one could say. and contrast that with Mario Vargas-Llosa From Making Waves Margio Vargas-Llosa Because it is not the story which in essence decides the truth or lies of a work of fiction, but the fact ...