Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

I got a shoebox and filled it with some of the titles I want to get my teeth stuck into for the Spring Reading Challenge (yes, it’s not spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Apparently the people that come up with this stuff forget there is no season on the blogosphere, pout pout).

It’s not quite as scary as it looks - a few of the titles I’m already in the middle of reading…

in medias res

1. Robert Fagles, translator, The Iliad. Like, Achilles, is like, so gay for Patroclus. Screw (haha!) the war - these dudes are totally hot for one another. Too bad Patroclus died. There was some drama about some slutty chick nicking off with this dandy… Anyway, I’m up to book 20 or so and this translation is pure poetry - it is stunning to read, though very concentrated. I thoroughly recommend this translation (I believe Fagles has just published his Aeneid translation too. When I read C. Day Lewis’…sigh!
2. Natsume Sōseki, I Am A Cat. The snarkiest cat in literary history, and the poor fellow has no name!
3. The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear. Only good in small bursts, you understand…
4. Poems of W. B. Yeats. I got this as a first-year lit student and decided to read through all the damn things instead of the selection we were set (it was small, pretty silly really). First-year lit was seven years ago. In my defence, multiple and recurrent nervous breakdowns…
5. Walter Pater, The Renaissance. Essays on art…not enjoying, which is odd because I’ve heard his Marius the Epicurean is fantastic (if anyone finds a copy of this, please sell it to me! I’m hot for it)
6. Emile Zola, L’Assommoir (or The Drunkard). En français. Very depressing, and bloody hard to read given the whole not my first language thing and all but it is excellent.
7. Japanese Love Poems: Selections from the Manyōshuu. I don’t know why I’m not enjoying this - I really love the sparseness of ancient Japanese poetry but I’m not getting into this for some reason.
8. Poe, Selected Tales. Given my previous appalling mental health, it has not been possible to read this often, nor wise. So still plodding through it.
9. Thackeray, Vanity Fair. No, not the very good American magazine! The novel. Thank you SO much Rob, I’m loving this, just started it last week. Will I have finished it by the time the end of our autumn/Northern Hemisphere spring comes?
10. Charles Vess, The Book of Ballads. Graphic novel where each story is inspired by a traditional ballad. This is one of the few titles I’m not in a rush to finish because it’s just so beautiful.
11. John Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason. Poetry manual by an eminent American poet.

Blogcritics reading material

1. Professor Solomon, Japan In A Nutshell. I’m already a third-way through this so should finish it, if not this week then next.
2. Aimee Liu, Gaining: the truth about eating disorders. This is very confronting reading, I stopped for a while because it was starting to get me all obsessed about being too fat! Ugh.
3. Madame Campan, The Private Life of Marie Antoinette. A memoir from one of Marie’s maids, I believe. Haven’t started this one at all yet.
4. Galloway, Gaming: Algorithmic Culture. An academic title about gaming! Ha!

titles not started at all

1. Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
2. Blue Dog: Australian Poetry Vol 10
3. Julia Casterton, Writing Poetry, a practical guide
4. Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars
5. Yann Martel, Life of Pi
6. Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

I should get through a lot of this stuff as I seem to be reading a lot more now that my mental health is really good.

You can also check out the other participants by visiting this link here. So far I’m an early bird looks like (I have no life, what can I say?).