From: hars@skolem.logique.jussieu.fr (Harold Shellinx)
Subject: Read in 1992
Organization: Equipe de Logique Mathematique
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 11:25:44 GMT

I started to keep track of my reading around Christmas 1989, inspired by
an article in one of the leading Dutch newspapers (NRC-Handelsblad), dealing
with reading-lists ("boekenschrift") and -statistics. An extended version
appeared in book-form, and in fact is one of the non-fiction titles on my
1992-list. (As it is in Dutch, it unfortunately will be inaccessible to most of
you netters :-(  [Felix Eijgenraam, "De plezierfactor. Nut en genot van het
Boekenschrift" [2]].)

I enter name of the author and title of books finished in a blank book,
chronologically, and note moreover (i) date and place where I started to read
it, (ii) date and place where I finished reading it, (iii) number of pages,
(iv) editor and edition read, (v) my appreciation, being one of [0]-[1]-[2]-[3].
(Though the blank book is the main thing, I do copy the data in a PC-database
enabling me to do every now and then some quick statistics on my reading.)

Up until now my list contains 255 titles (read between 24th December
1989 and 11th January 1993), amounting to a total number of 58851 pages. I
enter only titles that I actually did read from the first until the very last
line, and exclude the ones I read for work (in fact, these I hardly ever read
from beginning to end).

A note on my appreciation from 0 -- 3: the highest grade ([3]) is very,
very rare, and given to books that, for me, are 'essential'. I rated only 10
out of 255 by [3], and in fact only one  of these was a first reading (Witold
Gombrowicz, "De rat" [a collection of short stories, Dutch translation]). This
year's list contains two "[3]"-books, both not first readings:
        - Jorge Luis Borges, "De aleph" [a collection of short stories, Dutch
translation. Every passionate reader of course will consider the "Library of
Babel" as a metaphor of his futile efforts to master his own library in the
little time he has been given!.. :-( ].
        - Daniel Spoerri, "Topographie anecdote du hasard" [in French; unlike
Borges, I guess this is less standard as a favourite. It consists in a detailed
description of the eighty objects on the table in the author's room in the
hotel Carcassonne, Rue Mouffetard, Paris at 15 h. 47, october 17th, 1961].

The books I particularly enjoyed, but will not necessarily take along
to my 'desert island', are graded [2]; grade [1] means average fun, but
worthwhile. Finally [0] is meant to cover the remaining possible opinions.
Following Eijgenraam I use my ratings to find the 'pleasure-index'
("plezierfactor") of my reading, which is given by calculating for each title
the product of its rating and its number of pages, taking the sum of all these,
and then dividing the number found by the total number of pages. Of course it
will thrill you to know my present "pleasure-index". And gladly I will satisfy
your curiosity: it is 0.96 !! ;-)

As to my 1992 statistics, past year's list contains 89 titles (21446
pages), divided over four languages as follows:

        * Dutch         43      (8755 pp)
        * English       24      (9554 pp)
        * German         5      (668 pp)
        * French        17      (2469 pp)

divided into the following three categories:

        * fiction       56      (13754 pp)
        * (auto)biogr.  16      (4439 pp)
        * non-fiction   17      (3253 pp)

Some of the titles in the category (original) English fiction:
        - Harold Brodkey,        "The runaway soul"             [1]
        - Anthony Burgess,       "The devil's mode (Stories)"   [0]
        - Alan Hollinghurst,    "The swimming pool library"     [1]
        - John Irving,          "A prayer for Owen Meany"       [2]
        - Malcolm Lowry,         "Under the vulcano"            [2]
        - Charles Palliser,     "The Quincunx"                  [1]
        - Stephen Spender,      "The temple"                    [1]
        - Tom Wolfe,            "The bonfire of the vanities"   [0]

I found Brodkey's 'Runaway soul', his dissection of memory at work, in
slow motion and as if under some 'high resolution' microscope, at times tedious,
but also often fascinating, sometimes even touching and beautiful. Most fun I
had reading Irving's 'Prayer', which I think is a *superb* story. The biggest
disappointment was Tom Wolfe's book, in fact a 659-pages waste of time.

Fiction in English translation:
        - Alberto Moravia       "Journey to Rome"               [1]
        - Daniel Odier          "Cannibal Kiss"                 [0]
        - George Perec          "Things/A man asleep            [1]
        - Josef Skvoreckey      "The miracle game"              [1]
        - David Vogel           "Married Life"                  [2]

Some of the titles in the category (original) Dutch fiction:
        - Jules Deelder         "Jazz"                          [1]
        - Gerrit Krol           "De weg naar Sacramento"        [1]
        - Harry Mulisch         "De ontdekking van de hemel"    [2]
        - Multatuli             "Max Havelaar"                  [2]
        - Sybren Polet          "De geboorte van een geest"     [1]
        - Dick Raaijmakers      "De methode"                    [1]
        - Gerard Reve           "Op weg naar het einde"         [2]
        - Jan Siebelink         "Schaduwen in de middag"        [0]
        - Simon Vinkenoog       "Zolang te water"               [1]

Most fun was Harry Mulisch's "opus magnum". I never liked his writing
very much, but this one captured me. As I realized afterwards, it thrills like
those wonderfuly exciting mystery-books I read as a boy. There surely will be
English equivalents, but the ones I think of are "Dutch classics", like Leonard
Roggeveen's 'Het geheim van het oude horloge' ('The secret of the old watch',
that is!).

Fiction in Dutch translation:
        - Jorges LuisBorges     "De aleph"                              [3]
        - Jorge Luis Borges     "De zahir"                              [2]
        - Jorge Luis Borges     "Het boek van zand"                     [1]
        - Franz Fuehrmann       "De katachtigen wilden we verbranden"   [1]
        - Gogol                 "Dode zielen"                           [1]
        - Yasunari Kawabata     "De schone slaapsters"                  [1]
        - Christoph Ransmayr    "De laatste wereld"                     [1]
        - Carme Riera           "Tintelingen"                           [0]
        - Italo Svevo           "Bekentenissen van Zeno"                [1]

By the way, those of you whore are, or soon are going to be, in Paris,
should go and see the charming little exposition "L'Univers de Borges" in the
Centre Pompidou, Galerie mezzanine nord (until February 1st)!

Some of the '(auto)biography' - titles:
        - Salvador Dali         "Mijn leven als genie"                  [2]
        - Lodewijk van Deyssel  "Het IK."                               [1]
        - Richard Feynman       "Surely you are joking, Mr. Feynman"    [0]
        - Otto Friedrich        "Glenn Gould. A life and variations"    [0]
        - Peter Gay             "Freud. A life for our times"           [2]
        - E & J de Goncourt     "Dagboek" (Excerpts, Dutch translation) [0]
        - Fred Uhlman           "Il fait beau a Paris aujourd'hi"       [0]
        - Hans Warren           "Geheim Dagboek, X"                     [2]
        - August Willemsen      "De val"                                [1]

Dali's writing is delightful (Dutch translation by Gerrit Komrij)
(Fun!, Laughs!), and I was highly impressed by Peter Gay's Freud-biography,
which for me moreover was an instructive introduction to the man's work & ideas.
Definitely a reason to dive a bit into Freud's writings in the near future.

I worked and lived large parts of 1992 in Paris, which accounts for the
French titles on my list. Several of these were mere 'beginners-material', as I
had to learn the language almost from scratch, but towards the end of the year
things became more 'serious'. A selection:
        - George Simenon        "Les fianailles de M. Hire"             [1]
        - Alain Fournier        "Le grand Meaulnes"                     [0]
        - George Bataille       "Histoire de l'oeil"                    [2]
        - George Bataille       "Le mort"                               [2]
        - George Perec          "Cantatrix Sopranica L. et autres eccrits
                                 scientifiques"                         [1]

I enjoyed Bataille's 'erotic' stories, which moreover provided me with
a useful extension of my vocabulary ;-). The Perec is a nicely edited
collection of pastiches of scientific papers, published by Editions du Seuil in
its series "La Librairie du XXe Sicle". In the title-piece "Cantatrix Soprania
L." (which, by the way, is in English) the author examines the 'yelling
reaction' of sopranoes as a response to the throwing of tomatoes, and
demonstrates in which way different areas of the brain are involved in this
response. Those of you interested in that kind of stuff surely will enjoy as
well the, also delightfully edited, series "Litzelstetter Libellen" of satires
on scientific writing published by the Swiss "Libelle Verlag", Bottighofen am
Botensee, some of which appear on my German list:
        - Alexander Mehlmann    "De Salvatione Fausti. Die Wette zwischen Faust
und Mephisto im Lichte von spieltheoretischen Calcl und neuerem Operational
Research"
        - Lehner/Meran/Mller    "De Statu Corruptione. Entscheidungslogische
Einuebunngen in die Hoehhere Amoralitaett"
        - H. D.Mummendey        "De Vampyris. Auf dem Wege zu einer
sozialen Psychophysiologie des akuten Vampirismus"

Apart from these, and contrary to other years, I did little German
reading. Let me mention only
        - Rainer Maria Rilke    "Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge"[1]

To end my summary, a selection from my 1992 non-fiction reading:
        - Etienne Klein         "Conversations avec le Sphinx. Les paradoxes
                                 en physique"                           [0]
        - F. Muel, A. Ruais     "L'Envers et l'endroit. Tenture de l'Apocalypse
                                 d'Angers"                              [1]
        - Simon Schama          "Citizens. A chronicle of the French Revolution"
                                                                        [1]
        - Laura Starink         "Een land van horen zeggen"             [1]
        - Roger Penrose         "The emperor's new mind"                [0]

        =================================
                "More, in
                1994." ;-)
        =================================
        Harold Schellinx, Amsterdam/Paris