I find it funny that unread rhymes with undead because it seems to suggest that the unread books are only half alive. These books only come to life when one opens them and actually read them. So here are some of the books that I will be reading in the next few months. A growing pile of the unread:
- What is Literature by Jean-Paul Sartre, which so far has proved to be a dated source on the topic but has a remarkable discussion of an engaged writing, an engaged literature;
- The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick;
- The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche;
- Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco, because I’ve been waiting since the news of the Filipino novel’s winning of the Man Booker Asia in 2008;
- A New Lease of Life by Georges Simenon, the first I will read of his more than 400 books;
- Internet Culture edited by David Porter;
- Three Novels by Samuel Beckett, including Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable;
- The Immoralist by Andre Gide;
- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber; and
- Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rules in Cyberspace, which I got free from the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit.
Of course, I’m not discounting the fact that I may get a sudden fancy for some other books in the coming days. I left Dostoevsky’s Memoirs from the House of the Dead somewhere so it’s not there. I still have to look for it. ■
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And I hope we, your readers, get to hear snippets of “Internet Culture” cleverly integrated into this blog. Meta-blogging that would be :)
I would recommend more books, but your list is long enough already, for now…
Please do recommend more books. I’m not actually strict in following these lists. Even now, I just realized that I forgot to bring the Simenon, Nietzsche, and Beckett with me to the University.
hi karlo!
i been wanting to read Ilustrado also.
the thing is, i don’t have a copy. Mind if I borrow yours? thanks! :)
sure. i’ll lend you after i’m done reading. :)
you can find the book at national bookstore too if you want your own copy.
many thanks!
i’ll drop by one of these days at national bookstore to buy my own. :)
hi there again! :)
i went to national two days ago and unfortunately Ilustrado is out of stock
awts..but anyway..I think they will order for stocks soon..
i’m interested in the third book, wehehehe! :)
yes, because you’re gay: as in happy (and you look like dr. seuss: scientific)! :P
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I guess you’re now done reading Dostoyevsky’s “Memoirs from the House of the Dead,” and would really appreciate if you could write a sort of brief reflection on the book. I already read about half of the book when I decided to abandon it and focus to another book instead. I have this (bad) reading habit whenever I find a book uninteresing, though I believe Dostoyevsky’s House of the Dead is indeed a classic one.
By the way, aside from PowerBooks and Nat’l Bookstore, do you know where I can find copies of Sartre, Gorky and Faulkner ‘s works? Thanks.
I forgot where I left it. I still have to look for the book.
Booksale would be the place to find them (every now and then). Also try this link for some titles by Sartre.