Booked

It has been week of book talks.

First off: Lot of overspill from online and offline discussions about the Zadie article.
I thought it was inconsistent, naïve and self destructive.
For such a lengthy rant, at the end , I wasn’t able to figure what exactly she wanted to say. The centre did not hold onto any planks and to use a cliché, she went on and on( rummaging her purse). Moreover, her line of argument was enthusiastically fretting when not repetitive . Not to mention the confusion she had managed to reflect in the meantime. One of primary mis-assumption was that novel was taken as the fundamental unit of writing. That is so………….

well,

I can imagine a lot of people, including myself having reservations about that. Was it Naipaul who once remarked that novel is dead as an art form? And if you look at all the ink that has been spilled as novels over the last decade, you would find nothing of worth to challenge, forget contradicting (t)his opinion. But they ramble on. I mean Jo Rowling was advised to change her name JK Rowling. It is a great nutritive institution- the market. Damn.

Returning to the Zadie rant: I thought quoting Variety of Religious Experiences and Kierkegaard was quite superfluous to whatever the point she was making in that entrammeled mess.
I know she has a lot of friends from Cambridge who have studied philosophy but to see philosophy so randomly quoted, and at every possible convenience was like reading a pregnant high school essay trying to be desperately impressive.

It was such a ridiculous waste of time.

I need to say more but for now I shall hold on and save it for a rainy day.

And this new release has been the subject of every other email for the last two days. K aka the quickest bookie has already done it and texted as : Blind reco. Take my word. So the word has been taken and book amazoned. It is, on the motorway as we speak. Looking forward for the consumption.

To go on about the book, L , aka the second quickest bookie after K, was almost ecstatic in pointing out that most of my Top favourites match with that of Banville.
She even forwarded the list. And it most certainly did. And I am quite delighted about it.

So here’s Banville's;
Ill Seen, Ill Said
Notes from the underground
Ulysses
Doctor Faustus
Moby-Dick
Lolita
Austerlitz
Dirty Snow
Gulliver's Travels
Vanity Fair

And here’s mine:,

Ulysses
Notes from the underground
Moby Dick
Invisible Cities
Lolita
Great Gatsby
The Trial
Magic Mountain
On the road

And I always find it hard to pick between English Patient and Catch 22.

Lagniappe:
~ Had ordered Michael O’ Saidhail’s Love Life over the internet and found that the copy  has been signed by him. Lucky.

~ Being a member of a renowned bookshop, had an Oxford dix sent as a token gift, sometime, I guess , in last autumn. I only realised day before that some of the pages of the dix were missing when I was looking for Pasquinade. But thought it would be mildly embarrassing to request a replacement for a membership gift but then again what use is an anomalous dix? So, cleverly  I decided to mail them than calling and behold— a new dictionary was delightfully received today with an apology and a request to donate the old one to a charity or local library.

Faith is the word.

And not done yet, have saved the most important for the last:
It is the second of feburary, perhaps the most important day for English literature.

Happy birthday Joyce and Ulysses.

The great horizons against which all writers have to kneel in great respect.

So long,