NancyElin.blog

#Top 3 longest books I’ve ever read!

Si Dieu existait, il serait une bibliothèque. » Umberto Eco

Robert Bolãno – 2666 (1184 pages)

1. This is the ONLY book that made me physically exhausted.
2. It was praised to the high heavens…an I wanted see what the hype was all about.
3. With a half hour per day, this will take 30 days to read.
4. Believe me you cannot endure more than 30 minutes a day!
5. There are two major, intertwined plot threads in 2666,
6. one about a series of gruesome rapes and murders
7. in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, Mexico,
8. ..and the other concerning an obscure German writer with the
9. improbable name Benno Von Archimboldi.
10. Roberto Bolaño was dying of liver failure when he was working on 2666, though
11. he had nearly completed the novel before his death in 2003 at the age of 50.
12. A Race Against Death….
13. Many critics and writers felt that 2666 was written in a race against time,
14. with the shadow of death evident in the novel’s powerful and bleak themes. 

St. Augustine – The City of God   (1184 pages)

It is a book that influenced Western society more powerfully than perhaps any other book except the Bible.

Good News: This massive classic book has been on my bucket list for years. Is it possible to get through 1186 pages of St. Augustine? Well, I finally forced myself to read a book a day (22 books). It is the only way I could finish it.  I’m glad it is done and dusted. It is NOT for the fainthearted.  What is The City of God? I finally got my answer: it is more of an ideal that humans should strive for rather than a particular place or institution. It is an argument against paganism in favor of Christianity.

Bad News: I was not always thrilled to start my reading day with this book. It drains so much energy from me…and I just want to move on to another book.

Bad News: I slowly collaped like a cold soufflé while reading Books X-XXII. It felt like a retelling of the Old Testament up until the coming of Christ. Books XX-XXII are a final attempt to convince us that The Last Judgement, Hell and Heaven are real.

Good News: After a few books I learned that you cannot absorb every single word in this book. Each book has plusminus 25-35 chapter summations, so read that carefully, read/skim the text and draw a succint conclusion for yourself.

Personal:

1. It’s the final countdown…the end of an important journey.
2. Today I’ll say goodbye to St Augustine.
3. Now if I can only find the coffee mug with the logo:
4. “I read The City Of God.”
5. #ThereMustBeCoffeeInHeaven, right?
6. PS: If you want to read St. Augustine….I’d  recommend “Confessions”
7. ….it was 100x better than this book…and shorter! (324 pg)

William L. Shirer – The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1264 pages)

1. William L. Shirer ranks as one of the greatest of all American foreign correspondents.
2. He was correspondent in Germany for the Chicago Tribune and later for  CBS
3. …in the late 1930s that his reputation was established.
4. This book is a classic…it is an AMAZING READ…or a Audio book:  57 hr 13 min.
5. I listened to it during my morning walk
6. I never REALLY studied WW II in high school  and wanted to finally learn what was happening.

   Conclusion:

   1. The best description of this book
   2. …was written by H. Trevor-Roper
   3. a British historian at Oxford University
   4. who reviewed the book or the New York Times:
   5. “Light on our century’s  darkest night
   6. the awful story of Hitler’s Germany is movingly told
   7. and masterfully studied.”
   8. I could not improve on this statement if I tried.
   9. What I can add are my thoughts while reading the book.
   10. This classic of non-fiction had been on my bookshelf for decades!.
   11. But the sheer size of the book intimated me…and I never read it.
   12. If I can give any advice
   13. …read this book because it is so insightful.
   14. The only way I managed to do
   15. ..it was using the audio book.
   16. I set out with Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Göring  and  a cast of
   17. …characters on my morning walks.
   18. I let Shirer’s words drift into my mind hoping I would learn a
   19. little more about Hitler, his rise to power and his
   20. …dreams of a pure nation that would rule the world!
   21. I wrote down a few notes  after every walk.

   Last thoughts:

   1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become more than
   2. …just another work of history.
   3. It has acquired the reputation as the best-selling historical work
   4. ever written in modern times.
   5. It is based on captured  German secret documents.
   6. Don’t wait as long as I did to discover this book
   7. ….read it soon!
   8. Remember…
   9. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.‘
   10. (George Santayana, philosopher )

   

   War correspondent, W. Shirer

#Classic The Iliad

Finish date: 21.08.2025 
Genre: Classics 
Rating: A++++
ISBN: 978-1324001805

Translation: Emily Wilson (2023)

QUICK SCAN:

1. This is the third time I read The Iliad….and it was the BEST translation.
2. In the past I read the epic just to check it off my reading list.
3. This time I took the trouble to read Wilson’s intro and translation notes carefully and before starting the book.
4. In these times…it is so easy to Google “What happened in Book ? in The Iliad’? before reading a chapter.
5. It is the “wonder” of AI …and the quick summary made the reading this time SO much more enjoyable.
6. E. Wilson has also translated The Odyssey.
7. The Iliad is about men and war but all major conflicts are triggered by women!
8. As I say in the review I loved the gods’ politics and manipulations in the tragedy…comic relief!
9. The Odyssey is about a romance and adventure.
10. I want to read The Odyssey (also translated by Emily Wilson
11. ….but am taking a small break from the Ancients now.
12. It is good to get back to the Classics!

Background:   How did the Trojan wars start?

BOOK 1 – 19.08.2025

1. The Quarrel
2. …Homer zooms in on the 10th year of fighting… the quarrel b/t Achilles/Agamemnon.
3. Agamemnon and Achilles basically argue about a girl Briseis.
4. She was Achilles’s “war prize”. 
5. Agamemnon  has taken her as his own
6. …and  has insulted Achilles’s  honor.
7. Achilles refuses to fight, refuses to allow his men to fight, and asks  his mother (Thetis) to speak to Zeus
8. …so that the Greeks lose  the war without him.
9. There’s more going on but this is the core message.

BOOKS 2-5 – 20.08.25

1. There are some glimpses of peace
2. …it is not all violence and death.
3. Catalogue of ships – Greek’s long who’s who list to show their strength! – (skim this is section!)
4. Trojans admire Helen’s beauty.
5. Helen  describes the Greek warriors: Agamemnon/Achilles/Diomedes/Ajax.
6. Conflict: Paris and Menelaus – meet in a single hand-to-hand combat.
7. Suddenly the god Aphrodite intervenes and whisks Paris off to Helen’s bedroom!

BOOK 6 – 20.08.25

1. Glaucus and Diomedes agree to not kill each other! 
2. It appears G/D’s grandfathers were friends!
3. Very loving and tender scene between Hector, his wife and baby son.
4. Hector knows (…as does his wife) that once he goes back  to the battlefield
5. ….he will never return to his family. 
6. His wife insists that the servant slaves start lamenting….even while Hector is still alive.

BOOK 7 – 21.08.2025 – …duel b/t Hector and Ajax

1. Hector and Paris return  to the battlefield.
2. Apollo and Athena, then orchestrate a duel between Hector and a Greek champion Ajax
3. to temporarily halt the bloodshed.
4. The Trojans offer to return the treasures they stole from
5. …the Greeks but refuse to return Helen.
6. The Greeks reject the offer.

BOOK 8 – 21.08.2025 – …lots of things happening in this chapter!

1. Agamemnon asks Achilles to return to battle…he refuses.
2. Odysseus has a message for Achilles.  
3. Agamemnon offers to give back his “war prize, Briseis” – land, money and even Aga’s daughter in marriage!!
4. Here’s the rub:  Achilles must admit that Agamemnon is the better warrior compared to Achilles!!  
5. Achilles rejects the offer.
6. The speech is the longest in the epic!!  
7. Achilles does not want stuff…he wants an APOLOGY!
8. Achilles wants recognition of WHO he is and WHAT he has suffered.  

1. Odysseus and Diomedes conduct a spy mission into Trojan camp

BOOK 11 – 21.08.2025 – SECOND  plot point

1. The sea-god Poseidon intervenes in the battle at the Greek ships after Zeus leaves the field of battle.

BOOK 14 – 21.08.2025 –   I love when the Gods get involved….feels like “comic relief” from all the slaughter!

1. The Girdle of Love:
2. Hera seeks out Aphrodite to obtain her magical, love-inducing girdle
3. …which she uses to make herself incredibly beautiful.
4. (Where can I buy one of these?)
5. While the goddess Hera seduces Zeus with the help of the god of Sleep
6. …allowing the sea-god Poseidon to intervene and aid the Greeks in battle.

BOOK 15 – 21.08.2025 –   the  fighting continues…you need a scorecard to understand the gods!

BOOK 22 – 21.08.2025 – CLIMAX!

1. Hector and Achilles finally meet.
2. Hector asks Achilles to join in a pact
3. ….that who ever wins will NOT mutilate
4. …the body of the other but  return it is the parents and family.
5. Achilles rejects the pact.  Hector is NO match for Achilles. 
6. Achilles stabs Hector in the neck, but misses the vocal cords
7. …so Hector once again can ask if Achilles will spare his body. 
8. Achilles says he will leave his body to the dogs and birds.
9. Achilles even threatens to hack him in pieces and eat him raw (jick)…so is his rage.
10. Hector is dead, Troy will certainly fall and Achilles will soon die.

BOOK 23  – 21.08.2025

1. Achilles oversees the funeral games in honor of Patroclus.

BOOK 24 – 21.08.2025 – RESOLUTION

1. The old king Priam goes to Achilles’s tent.
2. He asks for his son’s  body.
3. Achilles has mutilated Hector’s body
4. ….and Priam asks Achilles to think what YOUR FATHER MAY feel
5. …what he has lost.
6. Please show some sympathy.
7. Achilles breaks down in tears.
8. Priam cries for his son Hector and
9. …Achilles cries for his own father and his BF Patroclus.
10. Achilles brings Hector’s body to his grieving father Priam.

CONCLUSION:

1. The epic begins with  honor, glory, battle exploits….
2. …ends on pity, tears the courage of an old man and the burial of Hector.
3. Some see in this ending a sign that Achilles has returned to the norm of humanity.
4. Homer has shown  Achilles…struggling with his values.
5. He is aware of his coming  death  and is trying to make
6. …the most of the time he has been given.
7. Achilles suffers from the curse of awareness
8. ...the awareness of one’s own mortality.

#Art History Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh’s last painting “Wheatfield with Crows” (1890)

Finish date: 12.08.2025
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: D
The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh – Penguin Classics (528 pg)

Bad news: As much as I like van Gogh’s paintings
his letters were 80% asking for supplies from his brother,
discussing technical aspects of drawing and color with other painters
and only 20 % describing his feelings. His decision to co-habit with  Sien (former prostitute)
and her child shattered his relationship with his parents and Theo.

Good news: The letters do give the reader a timeline of his metamorphosis  from a churchman to a painter.
He took  art lessons in The Hague, Antwerp and finally in Paris with the $$ help of his brother Theo. But you can read about this in Wikipedia as well!

Good news: The most interesting letters were from St. Rémy when het felt most happy in Southern France with his new friends in the village. Van Gogh’s mental health continued to decline , with increased episodes of depression, anxiety, and erratic behavior. In the final years (1888-1890) Vincent  was well aware of never recovering from his sickness. He would not be able to paint for much longer and  so began a frenetic period during which he produced his most famous works. There is NO consensus about van Gogh’s health. Here is an interesting LINK in which you can read  the many diagnoses concerning his health.

Bad news: The book ended quite abruptly. Vincent died in July 1890 and Theo died 6 months later in January 1891. The end. What I missed was any insight into van Gogh’s feelings about his last paintings.
I saw his LAST painting  (Wheatfield with Crows) last month in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It was painted hours  before he shot himself in a field by  Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north of Paris.
It is stunning to see “close-up”….filled with raw emotion, ominous symbols of black crows flying wildly around (death) …and the book says nothing about it…not even in the editor’s notes.

Personal: Would I recommend the book? Not really. Go to the library and find other books about Van Gogh and his art.  Read articles on Wikipedia. Here is another  interesting LINK about van Gogh’s last painting.  This way you will learn more about Vincent and his genius than reading his letters.

Vincent does not disappoint
…only this book leaves much to be desired.

Monthly Reading List 2025

LEEUWARDEN AT SUNRISE

1. If We Burn – V. Bevins (NF) – REVIEW
2. Shielded – J. Schwartz (NF) – REVIEW
3. Citizen – C. Rankin (prose poetry) – REVIEW
4. Arthur Miller – John Lahr (NF)  – REVIEW
5. Counting Descent – Clint Smith (poetry) – REVIEW
6. The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh – Penguin Classics – REVIEW
7. The Dead Hand – D. Hoffman (NF) – REVIEW
8. Fear and Misery in the Third Reich (play) – Bertolt Brecht – REVIEW
9. Frans Hals – (2023) – National Gallery London (essays) – REVIEW
10. Dallas Sweetman (play) – Sebastian Barry – REVIEW
11. The Iliad – Homer – REVIEW
12. Top 3 longest books I’ve ever read – 26.08.2025
13. Il nous restera ça – Virginie Grimaldi #WIT  (France) – REVIEW
14. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh – F. Werfel (Austria) – REVIEW
15. Rodolpho Walsh’s Last Case – Elsa Drucaroff #WIT  (Argentina) – REVIEW

1. 6 Weeks NO Books!

6 Weeks No Books!

1. Well, for the first time in my life I was sick of reading books!
2. So I abandoned the blog…threw my Kindle reader in the bookcase and
3. …bought a 4 week  (July) unlimited travel train pass for The Netherlands!
4. It was the best thing I ever did to beat the “book blues”.
5. It freed me from  reading lists and book challenges.
6. I walked at least 300 km sightseeing,  to and from train stations.
7. I travelled 2000 km (1243 miles) visiting:
8. Groningen, Franeker, Workum, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Maastricht
9. ...Velp, Zutphen, Zwolle, Utrecht and Arnhem. (see Google Maps)
10. What did I learn?  Travelling is a “full body workout”!
11. I was so exhausted I could not travel during the last 2 days of the month.
12. I had reached my sightseeing,  going out to dinner and drinking coffee with lots of cake
13. …saturation point.
14. So here I sit…. “vermoeid maar voldaan” (tired but satisfied)
15. … in my comfortable reading chair and getting ready for
16. …the coming “reading ” months!

#2025 Goodreads Challenge “Cheers”

1. NO long reviews for these books…
2. .…I’m just going to enjoy the challenge and see how far I come!
3. These challenges are personal.
4. Create your own separate  challenge thread to list the challenge/s
5. …you wish to participate in.
6. Goodreads Group: Catching Up on Classics
7. The whole month of December is dedicated to planning your challenge.
8. You can add your books and make edit adjustments till December 31st.
9. I’m starting some reading in last week of December for 2025 challenges!
10. No changes should be made to your list once challenge starts

Challenge 6 – Group Reads. 0/12

1 Augustus – John Williams
2
3
4
5
6

Challenge #7- Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete

START: Dr. Sam Hawthorne Series – Edward D. Hoch

1. There are 15 books in this series…my target is first 3 books.
2. Diagnosis: Impossible: The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne
3. More Things Impossible: The Second Casebook of Dr. Sam Hawthorne
4. Nothing is Impossible: Further Problems of Dr Sam Hawthorne

START: Maggie Dove: A Mystery series  by Susan Breen

1. Maggie Dove: A Mystery –
2. Maggie Dove Detective Agency –
3. Maggie Dove and the Lost Brides

START: The Accursed Kings –  Maurice Druon (historical fiction)

1. There are 7 books in this series…my target is first 3 books.
2. The Iron King
3. The Strangled Queen
4. The Poisoned Crown

#Classic Taming of the Shrew

1. Film: Taming of the Shrew (1967) – awful
   
2. Film: The Dresser (1983) – brilliant
   
3. RSC: production Taming of the Shrew (2019) – below average
   
4. Ballet de Monte Carlo: Taming of the Shrew (2017) – very good…better than I expected!
   
5. Shakespeare’s Globe: Taming of the Shrew (2012) – excellent!
   
6. Reading and watching time: 1 week

by William Shakespeare

Finish date: 17.12.2025
Genre: play
Rating:  C. …depends on what you watch/read!
#Classic

Good News: Suprise!! I was already to watch the play…had an idea of the actors but RSC in 2019 has produced a gender-swapped production of Shakespeare’s fierce, energetic comedy! It is now Bianco …not Bianca!

Bad News: This gender-swapping was version by the Royal Shakespeare Company (2019) was not good for me as a first time reader of the play. I was so immersed in the narrative, had all the players in place and suddenly the old and wise Baptista (Kate/Bianca’s father) is a woman. Combined with the difficulty following WS’s words looking up notes for the meaning of the text and getting used to the people in their parts…it was confusing to say the least. I’ll watch another version by The Globe Theatre based on the original characters (no swapping) a WS intended.

Good News: Globe Theatre production (2012) is the hands down winner! There is more slapstick, physical acting, and the Kate’s wedding dress is beautiful. Impossible to see “male” Kate in RSC version as a stunning bride. The comic relief Grumio (Petruchio’s servant) is priceless!

Bad News: Shakespeare has done is best to confuse his readers/audience: role-play, change of costumes (to imply one is a nobleman) and witty “verbal sparrings” that make the first encounter between Kate and Petruchio feel like a boxing match. There are layers to discover: a play, in a play.

Good News: Best image in the play…that lingers falcon Act 4, 1: “My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged…” A falcon won’t hunt unless it is hungry, implying that Kate won’t learn to obey Petruchio unless he withholds her food. Petruchio indicates that he sees her as if she were an animal with the sole purpose of obeying and serving him.

Personal: There are many ways to view the play: as psychological abuse of Kate, a farce or Kate as a cunning pragmatist. Kate is full of rage b/c her father treasures Bianca more than Kate. Act 2,1 “I’ll be revenged”. The eventual change in Kate leaves the reader still puzzled. Is it possibly with happiness or resignation. You’ll have to decide what you think.

Shakespeare in the media: I watched Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton film version from 1967. Unforunately it felt like a Cliff’s Notes version of the play. I love Burton’s thundering voice but rather in a serious classic like Hamlet. This film was a cringe-inducing experience!

I watched the Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo  perform The Taming of the Shrew (2017). Act 1-2-3  was 45 min. Act 4-5- 30 min: Decor was minimalist with shades of blue.  Bianca is dressed in white, Kate dark green. Kate is a very passive-agressive  dancer. At times she is clenching her fists then looking secretly and lovingly at Petruchio.  Petruhio enters in a coat of feathers and with lots of jumping and chest thumping!  Both weddings (Kate and Bianca) were very nicely done! The story was easy to follow but you have to know what  TShrew is about before watching the ballet. Boy, dancing is hard work!

Another film that will get you in the mood to read Shakespeare is  The Dresser (1983, AppleTV) with Albert Finney and Tom Courtaney. Personal assistant Norman struggles to get deteriorating veteran actor through a difficult performance of King Lear. It’s not a “big” movie, and doesn’t try to make a big splash, but my goodness, the brilliance of the two leads leaves me just about speechless. Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay are nothing less than amazing in this movie.

Book: Taming of the Shrew Penguin Classics ISBN: 9780141396583
The book is very readable. (font)
27% -General introduction (very good)
40% -Induction + play
2% -Passages inserted by Pope in his edition of the play
4% -Account of text and some alterations
28% -Commnetary notes

There is also “The Pelican Shakespeare” with NO commentary notes….but I love the bookcover! (ISBN: 9780143128625)

#2025 Reading Challenge: Shakespeare

1. As Sylvia Plath  was  described in Red Comet:
2. “…she hears the muffled drip, drip, drip of time under her pillow.”
3. That is how I feel now about Shakespeare!
4. I would like to read all his plays…in the coming years.
5. This is the first step in 2025:
   
6. It will all feel like homework but I’m going to
7. watch as many of the plays on  GLOBE PLAYER
8. …”streaming” (movies, ballets)
9. …listen to podcasts, and research any book notes (Sparknotes, Cliffnotes etc)
10. …and other books I have about Shakespeare.
11. Making  the challenge more “interactive” will be the fun part!

Sources:

• Penguin Classics Kindle version of individual plays
• The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works: The Complete Works
• Website: Shakespeare Online
• Podcast: University of Oxford “Approaching Shakespeare”
• Audible: The Great Couses “How to Read and Understand  Shakespeare”

Reading Shakespeare: 2025

Optional:

1. Reading the histories:
2. …if I still have enough energy.
3. I’ll have to see how far I come.
4. Source: Stephen Greenblatt’s   “Histories”
5. This is part of  The Norton Shakespeare series.
6. In chronological order of setting, these are:

1. King John
2. Richard II (re-read)
   
3. Henry IV Parts I and II
4. Henry V
5. Henry VI Parts I, II and III
6. Richard III
7. Henry VIII.

Reviews:

1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream  – REVIEW
2. Richard II –  REVIEW
3. Hamlet – REVIEW
4. Othello – REVIEW
5. Macbeth – REVIEW

#Nobel Prize 1926 Grazia Deledda

by Grazia Deledda

Finish date: 06.12.2024
Genre: novella (190 pg)
Rating: F
#Nobel Prize 1926

Good News: The narrative is clear.. Elias is trapped in a love triangle with his brother and his fiancée. I don’t have to reveal any spoilers…this will not turn out well.

Bad News: 53% of the book and we’ve reached the point of no return. Elias feels all is lost (brother marries Maddalena) and we have pages and pages of doom, gloom, sobbing, moaning and wanting to rip one’s heart out. To make matters worse…Elias is constantly overwhelmed with religious guilt.

Bad News: This book is about the emotional rollercoaster Elias Portolu is on filled with sudden impulsiveness; the pride and the shame; the soaring joys and the deep despairs.
I had the hope that the the best character in the book, Uncle Martinu would knock some sense to our lovesick protagonist. Elias seeks his good advice but fails to follow through on any of it.

Personal: Elias is a real drama queen. The drama was becoming so repetitious, I found myself getting a bit annoyed with and critical of the novel for its monotony. Elias is suffering from “Catholic guilt” and it dictates his day-to-day life.
Nobel Prize 1926? I’m not impressed with G. Deledda’s (1871-1936) writing.

• It was long-windedly and hairpullingly boring.
• Reading time: 3,5 hr

#CF British classic George Bellairs