tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post1805470305422369363..comments2024-01-19T21:33:09.716+00:00Comments on E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK: Summer Books?EYEWEARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01900801847916951522noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-59571869056918809902010-07-30T10:26:39.116+01:002010-07-30T10:26:39.116+01:00Some of my favourite holiday reading is complex po...Some of my favourite holiday reading is complex poetry that I've read up to hundreds of times before and so can read easily with an almost physical pleasure - and still get some of the rewards of the underlying complexity. Thus, I'm wearing out my second copy of Rilke's Duino Elegies in the McIntyre translation.Leona Carpenterhttp://www.mulfran.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-55584386808721147352010-07-21T00:31:39.868+01:002010-07-21T00:31:39.868+01:00for what it's worth T: Witz by Joshua Cohenfor what it's worth T: Witz by Joshua CohenAlannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-89647847669033265332010-07-20T22:10:54.323+01:002010-07-20T22:10:54.323+01:00The end of this post reminded me of one of my favo...The end of this post reminded me of one of my favourite bits of If On A Winter's Night a Traveller:<br /><br />"You have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid manoeuvre you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too.<br /><br />Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out:<br />the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages, the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success, the Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment, the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case, the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer, the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves, the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified."Bethannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-84346083949301829182010-07-20T10:06:14.344+01:002010-07-20T10:06:14.344+01:00To be fair, "summer reading" or "ho...To be fair, "summer reading" or "holiday reading" means, to many folk, something undemanding that you can read with half your mind working, which poetry often isn't. I wouldn't take any poet more demanding than Harry Graham on holiday and my preferred holiday reading is David Wishart's Roman detective stories, when he's got a new one out.Sheenagh Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02735299981866333316noreply@blogger.com