an eudæmonist › reading

2006

December

Graham Greene. A Gun for Sale. London: Penguin, 2005 (1936). [191]

Greene-landish entertainment about munitions.

Jason. Hey, Wait…. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2001. [190]

Graphic short-story about childhood friends and getting old.

Jason. Why Are You Doing This?. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2005 (2004). [189]

Graphic short-story, murder mystery, a case of mistaken identity.

Eliza Haywood. The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2005 (1753). [188]

Rollicking story of two young folks who plan to get married, but want to know more about the evils of the world before they take that step. Intrigue and confusion and comedy abound.

Joe Sacco. War’s End: Profiles from Bosnia 1995 – 1996. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2005. [187]

Short bits of graphic journalism/memoir; effects of war, journalism as profession.

Joe Sacco. The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2003. [186]

Graphic journalism/memoir about a Bosnian guide.

Lee Klein. Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World. San Diego: Better Non Sequitur, 2004. [185]

Dude, aka ‘The Egotourist’, moves back to his parents’ home in New Jersey and works as a temp to save money for a trip to Peru. Pompous whimsey and ‘Love in the Time of Coca-Cola’.

Susanna Clarke. The Ladies of Grace Adieu. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006. [184]

You know those books that wish they were written in the style of a different age, but aren’t? This is one of those. Falls under the heading ‘Fairies – Fiction’ which about sums it up. Not really my schtick, sadly; but an easy read.

Jane Greenfield. The Care of Fine Books. New York: N. Lyons Books, 1988. [183]

Clear explanation, with nice line-drawings, of how to take care of books, as well as some of the dangers facing books.

Nick Hornby. High Fidelity. New York: Riverhead, 1995. [182]

Better than I would have expected; charming, too. Cute bits about music and relationships. Like that’s not the most banal summary I could have come up with…

Gertrude Stein. A book concluding with As a wife has a cow, a love story. Barton, VT: Something Else Press, 1973 (1926). [181]

I don’t get it, but I like it.

Jason. Meow, Baby!. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2006. [180]

A funny scene: mummy escapes from museum, sees well-endowed women, gets boner, does inevitable behind a bush.

Sylvia Beach. Shakespeare and Company. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959 (1956). [179]

Beach is a reader, not a writer, and the result is workmanlike gossip. Numerous Joyce tidbits.

Urban Hermitt. The Flow Chronicles. Portland, OR: Microcosm, 2002. [178]

Rough narrative of tomboy’s youthful efforts ‘to figure things out’, interspersed with epistles. Open-minded about orthography.

W. Somerset Maugham. Ashenden, or the British Agent. Salem, NH: Ayer, 1984 (1927). [177]

Spy novel, or rather series of interrelated sketches (cf. Pnin or Berlin Stories). Welcome break from The Enormous Room.

November

Alice B. Toklas. What is Remembered. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963. [176]
Jason. Sshhhh. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2002. [175]
Aaron Cometbus. Mixed Reviews. [174]
Anne Brontë. Agnes Grey. New York: Penguin, 1989 (1847). [173.1]
Wendy Wasserstein. The Heidi Chronicles and Other Plays. New York: Harcout, Brace, Jovanovich, 1990 (1977, 1979, 1988). [172]
Mary Van Kleek. Women in the Bookbinding Trade. New York: Survey Associates, 1913. [171]
Carlton Lake. Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist. New York: New Directions, 1990. [170]
Anthony Rota. Apart from the Text. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll, 1998. [169]
Florence Parry Heide. The Treehorn Trilogy. illustrated by E. Gorey. New York: Abrams Books, 2006 (1971, 1981, 1984). [168]
Jason. Tell Me Something. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2000. [167]
Annie Tremmel Wilcox. A Degree of Mastery. Minneapolis: New Rivers, 1999. [166]
William Carlos Williams. Autobiography. New York: New Directions, 1967. [165]
Heimito von Doderer. The Merowingians or The Total Family. trans. Vinal Overing Binner. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon, 1996 (1962). [164]
William Lyon Phelps. Human Nature. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1931. [163]
David Byrne. Arboretum. San Francisco: McSweene’s, 2006. [162]
Daniel Berkeley Updike. The Well-Made Book: Essays and Lectures. William S. Peterson, ed. West New York, NJ: Mark Batty, 2002. [161]
Gertrude Stein. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. New York: Vintage, 1990 (1933). [160]
James Thurber. My Life and Hard Times. New York: Harper & Row, 1973 (1933). [159]

October

Bernard Scudder, trans. The Saga of Grettir the Strong. London: Penguin, 2005. [158]
Bernard C. Middleton. Recollections: A Life in Bookbinding. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. [157]
Jesse L. Byock, trans. The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. London: Penguin, 1998. [156]
Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards, trans. Eyrbyggja Saga. London: Penguin, 1989 (13^th C. CE). [155]
Kate T. Williamson. A Year in Japan. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. [154]
Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Redwood: A Tale. New York: Garnett, 1969 (1824). [153]
Tzvetan Todorov. Life in Common. trans. K. & L. Golsan. Lincoln, NE: UNP, 2001 (1995). [152]
Edward Walker. The Art of Book-Binding, Its Rise and Progress; Including a Descriptive Account of the New York Book-Bindery. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll, 1984 (1850). [151]
Samuel Roseberg. The Confessions of a Trivialist. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. [150]
Nick Hornby. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. San Francisco: Believer Books, 2006. [149]
Craig Thompson. Good-Bye, Chunky Rice. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2005 (1999). [148]
Christopher Morely. The Haunted Bookshop. New York: Lippincott, 1955 (1919). [147]
Javier Marías. Voyage Along the Horizon. trans. K. Cordero. San Francisco: Believer Books, 200? (1972). [146]
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Random Family. New York: Scribner, 2003. [145]
Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. trans. Jesse Byock. London: Penguin, 2005 (13^th century CE). [144]
Chris Abani. Becoming Abigail. New York: Akashic Books, 2006. [143]
Arthur Nersesian. The Fuck-Up. New York: Pocket Books, 1997. [142]
Diana Whaley, ed. Sagas of the Warrior Poets. trans. various. London: Penguin, 2002. [141]
Leah Ryan, ed. For Here or To Go. New Orleans: Garrett County Press, 2004. [140]
Jason. The Left Bank Gang. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2005. [139]
Vendela Vida, ed. Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. San Francisco: Believer Books, 2005. [138]

September

Jane Addams. Democracy and Social Ethics. New York: Macmillan, 1916. [137]
Margaret Spufford. Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and Its Readership in 17th Century England. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1981. [136]
Stephen Duncombe. Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture. London: Verso, 1997. [135]
Felicia Lamport. Light Metres. Illustrated by Edward Gorey. New York: Everest House, 1982. [134]
Nick Hornby. The Polysyllabic Spree. San Francisco: Believer Books, 2004. [133]
Eli Horowitz, ed. McSweeney’s 18. 2005. [132]
Eric Gill. An Essay on Typography. Boston: David Godine, 1988 (1936). [131]
Cindy Crabb. Doris: An Anthology 1991–2001. Portland, OR: Microcosm, 2005. [130]
Josephine Tey. Miss Pym Disposes. New York: Scribner, 1976 (1948). [129]
Felicia Lamport. Cultural Slag. Illustrated by Edward Gorey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. [128]
Denis Diderot. This Is Not a Story and Other Stories. trans. P.N. Furbank. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1991 (1770–1772). [127]
Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: FSG, 1997. [126]
Kyle Bravo, ed. Making Stuff and Doing Things. Portland, OR: Microcosm, 2006. [125]
Lord Dunsany. The King of Elfland’s Daughter. New York: Ballantine, 1969 (1924). [124]
Caroline Blackwood. Corrigan. New York: NYRB Classics, 2002 (1984). [123]
Lord Dunsany. Gods, Men and Ghosts: The Best Supernatural Fiction of Lord Dunsany. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1971 (19–?). [122]

August

Craig Thompson. Blankets. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2003. [121]
Colin Ward. Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2004. [120]
H.P. Lovecraft. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. New York: Beagle Books, 1971 (1941). [119]
Greig Means. Zine Librarian Zine 1 & 2. 2003. [118]
Dave Roche. On Subbing. Portland, OR: Microcosm, 2005. [117]
Jean de La Bruyère. Characters. trans. Jean Stewart. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970 (1688). [116]
Jack Saturn. We Ain’t Got No Car #7. Portland, OR: Recursive Delete, 2003. [115]
Carrie McNinch. I Want Everything to Be Okay. Portland, OR: Tugboat Press, 2006. [114]
Max Estes. Hello, Again. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2005. [113]
George MacDonald. Lilith. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B Eerdmans, 1981 (1895). [112]
John Galt. Annals of the Parish. Oxford: OUP, 1982 (1821). [111]
Natsume Soseki. Kokoro. trans. Edwin McClellan. Lake Bluff, IL: 1957 (1914). [110]
Duane Elgin. Voluntary Simplicity. New York: William Morrow, 1993. [109]
Jane Addams. Twenty Years at Hull-House. New York: Signet, 1960 (1910). [108]
L.S. Stavrianos. The Balkans 1815–1914. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1963. [107]
Jean Cocteau. Opium: The Diary of a Cure. trans. M. Crosland & S. Road. London: Peter Owen, 1957. (1929–30). [106]
Jean Cocteau. The Impostor. trans. Dorothy Williams. New York: Noonday, 1957. [105]

July

Barry Rubin & Kemal Kirisci, eds. Turkey in World Politics: An Emerging Multiregional Power. London: Lynne Rienner, 2001. [104]
Justin Spring. The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook. New York: Broadway, 2006. [103]
Paul Fussell. Class. New York: Ballantine, 1983. [102]
Jean Cocteau. The Miscreant. trans. Dorothy Williams. London: Peter Owen, 2003 (1921). [101]
Mary McCarthy. The Group. New York: Avon, 1980 (1954). [100]
Norman Malcolm. Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. Oxford: OUP, 1958. [99]
Peter Singer & Jim Mason. The Way We Eat. Kutztown, PA: Rodale, 2006. [98]
Robertson Davies. The Lyre of Orpheus. London: Penguin, 1988. [97]
Robertson Davies. What’s Bred in the Bone. London: Penguin, 1985. [96]
James Hynes. Publish and Perish. New York: Picador, 1997. [95]
James S. Romm. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought. Princeton, NJ: PUP, 1992. [94]
Robertson Davies. The Rebel Angels. London: Penguin, 1981. [93]
Mary McCarthy. The Groves of Academe. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1952. [92]

June

Heinrich Böll. The Lost Honour of Katherina Blum. trans. Leila Vennewitz. London: Penguin, 1974. [91]
Arthur Schnitzler. Dream Story. trans. J.M.Q. Davies. London: Penguin, 1999 (1926). [90]
Clyde B. Clason. Murder Gone Minoan. Boulder, CO: Rue Morgue Press, 2003 (1939). [89]
Robert Graves. Watch the Northwind Rise. New York: Avon, 1963 (1949). [88]
Margaret Scherf. The Green Plaid Pants. Boulder, CO: Rue Morgue Press, 2005 (1951). [87]
Norbert Davis. Sally’s in the Alley. Boulder, CO: 2002 (1943). [86]
Norbert Davis. Oh, Murderer Mine. Boulder, CO: 2003 (1946). [85]
Norbert Davis. The Mouse in the Mountain. Boulder, CO: 2001 (1943). [84]
J. LaFerla & V.A. Gunter, eds. The Penland Book of Handmade Books. New York: Lark, 2004. [83]
Henrik Ibsen. Brand. trans. Michael Meyer. Garden City, NY: Doubleday-Anchor, 1960 (1865). [82]
Ursula K. Le Guin. The Earth Sea Trilogy. New York: Bantam, 1969, 1971, 1972. [81]
Satoko Kizaki. The Phoenix Tree and Other Stories. trans. Carol Flath. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1990. [80]
Oliver Sacks. The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. London: Picador, 1985. [79]
Penny Ur & Andrew Wright. Five Minute Activities. Cambridge: CUP, 1992. [78]
Keith Smith. Structure of the Visual Book. Rochester, NY: Keith A. Smith Books, 1994. [77]
Philip K. Dick. Valis. New York: Vintage, 1981. [76]
Ray Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles. New York: Bantam, 1950. [75]
Jalal Al-e Ahmad. By the Pen. trans. M.R. Ghanoonparvar. Austin, TX: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1988 (1961). [74]
Jalal Al-e Ahmad. The School Principal. trans. John K. Newton. Minneapolis, MN: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1974 (1958) [73].
Philip K. Dick. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. New York: Daw, 1974. [72]
Lewis Mumford. The Brown Decades: A Study of the Arts in America 1865–1895². Mineola, NY: Dover, 1955 (1931). [71]
Gladys Scott Thomson. Mrs Arthur Strong: a Memoir. London: Cohen & West, 1949. [70]
Dan Herr & Joel Wells, ed. Bodies & Souls. New York: Echo, 1961. [69]
St. Clair McKelway. True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality. New York: Vintage, 1950 (1933). [68]
[James] Branch Cabell. These Restless Heads. New York: The Literacy Guild, 1932. [67]

May

James Branch Cabell. Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1977 (1926, 1919). [66]
Q. D. Leavis. Fiction and the Reading Public. London: Pimlico, 2000 (1932). [65]
Kenneth Dover. Marginal Comment. London: Duckworth, 1994. [64]
Peter S. Beagle. The Last Unicorn. New York: Penguin, 1968. [63]
Jeffrey Brown. Clumsy. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2002. [62]
Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov’s Dozen. New York: Avon Books, 1958. [61]
Aldous Huxley. Crome Yellow. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2004 (1921). [60]
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Exemplary Stories. trans. C.A. Jones. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972 (1613). [59]
Arthur Schopenhauer. The Art of Literature. trans. T. Bailey Saunders. Mineola, NY; Dover, 2004 (1891). [58]
Henry James. The Spoils of Poynton. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964 (1897). [57]
Diane Larsen-Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP, 2000. [56]
Charles Dickens. David Copperfield. London: Penguin, 1996 (1850). [55.1]
William Littlewood. Foreign and Second Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP, 1984. [54]
Kyriacos C. Markides. The Rise and Fall of the Cyprus Republic. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977. [53]

April

J. M. Coetzee. Elizabeth Costello. New York: Viking, 2003. [52]
Christopher Hitchens. Cyprus. New York: Quartet, 1984. [51]
Laura Riding & Robert Graves. A Pamphlet Against Anthologies. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1928. [50]
George Grivas. The Memoirs of General Grivas. ed. Charles Foley. New York: Praeger, 1965 (1964). [49]
Rose Macaulay. Catchwords and Claptrap. London: Hogarth, 1926. [48]
R.F. Holland, ed. Emergencies and Disorder in the European Empires after 1945. Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1994. (4 of 13 essays read; viz. those by Kent, Furedi, Holland, & Anderson)
Gabriel García Márquez. Chronicles of a Death Foretold. trans. G. Rabassa. New York: Ballentine, 1982 (1981). [47]
Barry Hughart. Eight Skilled Gentlemen. New York: Bantam, 1991. [46]
Mehmet Arif Ölçen. Vetluga Memoir: A Turkish Prisoner of War in Russia, 1916–1918. trans. Gary Leiser. Gainesville, FL: UFP, 1995. [45]
Henryk Sienkiewicz. Charcoal Sketches and Other Tales. trans. A. Zamoyski. London: Angel Books, 1990 (ca. 1884). [44]
Bunny Wilson. To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History. New York: Doubleday, 1940. [43]
Kenzaburo Oë. A Personal Matter. trans. J. Nathan. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1969 (1964, 1968). [42]
Angus Wilson. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. New York: Signet, 1963 (1956). [41]
Vladimir Nabokov. Poems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959. [40]
Robert Holland. Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954 – 1959. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998. [39]
N.K. Sandars, ed. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin, 1972 (ca. 2000 BCE). [38]

March

Basil Stewart. My Experiences of Cyprus. London: Routledge, 1908. [37]
Peter Gould & Rodney White. Mental Maps. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. [36]
Peter Turchi. Maps of the Imagination: the Writer as Cartographer. San Antonio: Trinity UP, 2004. [35]
Lawrence Durrell. Bitter Lemons. New York: Dutton, 1957. [34]
Hugh Kenner. Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster Fuller. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1973. [33]
John Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash. Boston: Riverside Press, 1961 (1954). [32]
Virginia Woolf. Jacob’s Room. London: Hogarth, 1960 (1922). [31]
Bruno Schulz. Cinnamon Shops (published as The Street of Crocodiles). trans. C. Wieniewska. London: Penguin, 1963 (1934). [30]
Alexander Pushkin. The Queen of Spades and Other Prose Fiction. trans. P. Dobreczeny. Norfolk : Milner and Co., 2003. [29]
Burton Watson. Four Huts : Asian Writings on the Simple Life . Boston: Shambala, 2002. [28]
Leonard Woolf. The Wise Virgins: A Story of Words, Opinions and a few Emotions. New York: HBJ, 1979 (1914). [27]
Jane Ellen Harrison. Reminiscences of a Student’s Life. London: Hogarth, 1925. [26]

February

Virginia Woolf. Night and Day. London: Penguin, 1992 (1919). [25]
Vladimir Nabokov, trans. Three Russian Poets: Selections from Pushkin, Lermontov, & Tyutchev. New York: New Directions, 1944. [24]
Robert Glück. Denny Smith (Stories). Astoria, OR: Clear Cut Press, 2003. [23]
Jesse L Byock. Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power. Berkeley, CA: UCP, 1988. [22]
Graham Greene. Travels with My Aunt. New York: Bantam, 1969. [21]
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. New York: Signet, 1964 (1832–1851). [20]
Alexander Pushkin. Eugene Onegin. trans. Sir C. Johnston. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979 (1830). [19]
Alexander Pushkin. The Captain’s Daughter and Other Stories. trans. T. Keane, N Duddington. New York: Vintage, 1936 (1832). [18]

January

Quentin Bell. Virginia Woolf: A Biography. New York: Harcourt, Brace, etc., 1972. [17]
Natsume Soseki. Ten Nights’ Dreams & Our Cat’s Grave. trans. S. Hata, D. Shirai. Tokyo: Tokyo News Service, 1949 (1908). [16]
Anne Olivier Bell, ed. The Diary of Virginia Woolf: 1915–1919. vol. 1/5. New York: Harcourt, Brace, etc., 1977. [15]
Alasdair Gray. Ten Tales Tall & True. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993. [14]
Craig Thompson. Carnet de Voyage. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2004. [13]
Clear Cut Press, ed. The Clear Cut Future. Astoria, OR: Clear Cut Press, 2003. [12]
Charles D’Ambrosio. Orphans: Essays. Astoria, OR: Clear Cut Press, 2004. [11]
Karl Miller. Electric Shepherd. London: faber & faber, 2005. [unf.]
François-René De Chateaubriand. Atala & René. New York: Signet, 1961 (1801, 1802). [10]
Robert Louis Stevenson. The Master of Ballantrae. New York: Popular Library, 1964 (1889). [9]
Michel Leiris. Nights as Day Days as Night. trans. R. Sieburth. Hygiene, CO: Eridanos, 1987 (1961). [8]
Kevin Lynch. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960. [7]
Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary. trans. F. Steegmuller. New York: Modern Library, 1957 (1857). [6]
Mark Parker. Literary Magazines and British Romanticism. Cambridge, UK: CUP, 2000. [5]
Tommaso Landolfi. An Autumn Story. trans. J. Neugroschel. Hygiene, CO: Eridanos, 1989 (1975). [4]
Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Baron Bagge/Count Luna. trans. R. & C. Winston, J. Greene. Hygiene, CO: Eridanos, 1988 (1956). [3]
Oscar Lewis. A Death in the Sanchez Family. New York: Random House, 1969 [2]
Alexander Lernet-Holenia. The Resurrection of Maltravers. trans. Joachim Neugroschel. Hygiene, CO: Eridanos, 1988 (1984). [1]