Tag: Tree Book

  • A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

    “It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met…” Kenkō If I ever wanted to read a complete collection of random thoughts, I would seriously consider a full edition of Yoshida Kenko’s work. The short and… →

  • The Song of Achilles

    I’ll let you in on a little secret: Whenever I come across the Trojan war, I have been rooting for the Trojans. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense – we all know how it ends with the horse and the burning of Troy. It was reading The Song of Achilles that I… →

  • On the Beach at Night Alone

    This one wasn’t for me. I had of course heard of the author, but had never read anything by him. Based on this collection, a selection from Leaves of Grass, I don’t think I will either. With the Little Black Classics you never know up front what to expect, there have been some very nice… →

  • Recursion

    I suggested Recursion as the new book for book club, and it was selected so I felt a certain responsibility when I started reading it. I had bought it earlier this year after all the praise it received and also because I really like Dark Matter which I read some time ago. Going in, I… →

  • Three Tang Dynasty Poets

    This is exactly why I thought the Penguin Little Black classics would be great. This edition contains three poets from the Tang Dynasty and I will be the first to admit that it wasn’t something that I would have usually picked. But I’m very glad that I read it now, because I was most pleasantly… →

  • A Modest Proposal

    I first came in contact with Swift’s Modest Proposal in school where we read certain passages. I was immediately smitten with the nice way in which he wrote his satire. It is so businesslike that it is almost hard at first glance not to agree with his arguments and business strategy. That is, of course,… →

  • Wailing Ghosts

    According to the blurb Wailing Ghosts collects some of the most wonderful stories in Chinese literature. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t like them. With some stories I was wondering if I was missing the clue, because the end was rather abrupt and not funny. At other times I was wondering if time might have influenced… →

  • Traffic

    Traffic consists of two different pieces. The first is a speech where John Rushkin is asked to talk about an Exchange but he just tells them he couldn’t care less and talks about other things instead. This part was mildly interesting, but in fact very forgettable. The second half was worse, and I had a… →

  • Aphorisms on Love and Hate

    I was a little bit afraid to start this collection of Aphorisms, because the last one I read, another one of the Little Black Classics, was a real disappointment. I’d previously only seen a little bit of Nietzsche in class, but was curious to what he had to say. I can only speak for this… →

  • Wayward Son

    The mind is a tricky thing. I got Wayward Son because I seemed to remember I liked Carry On a lot, so I ordered it. Of course, only after getting it, I decided to look up my old review – and saw it was much more of a mixed bag. Moreover, I realized I didn’t… →

  • On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts

    Thomas de Quincey states at the start of the essay that it is a transcript from a meeting of a mysterious group of gentleman who are fascinated by murder. The rest of the essay is then the transcript and elaborates on several murders and the murder of philosophers. Based on the fact that people are… →

  • The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

    The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue is the third of Penguin’s Little Black Classics, and it is because of titles like this one that I picked up the series, as they represent the kind of books I would maybe not have read otherwise. The story was quite enjoyable. A young Icelandic noble holds a gap-year (several… →

  • A Natural History of Dragons

    I like reading fake history novels. I love ‘natural history’ or biology as we would call it. And I would like to point out that while the title suggests this is very much a fantasy novel, this is way more a historical novel which happens to focus on describing dragons in a scientific way. Lady… →

  • As kingfishers catch fire

    The second of Penguin’s Little Black Classics shows a collection of poems of Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Unfortunately, they were not my taste and failed for the most part to hold my attention. One nice little detail I wanted to point out though. I’m sure it has happened to a lot of us for… →

  • Mrs Rosie and the Priest

    Mrs Rosie and the Priest is the first of the (up to now) 126 Little Black Classics. As they occupy an entire bookcase, I’m planning to read them all in the near future. This was a light starter. When people think about ‘old’ literature, they often assume that it will be higher or more moral… →

  • Foxglove Summer

    Every year, the new PC Grant novel (or Rivers of London novel as I tend to call them) is one of my most anticipated reads. Also, I need to wait for more than half a year until the right paperback edition is published (height 19,7 cm; I mean even the MMP (mass market paperback) gets… →

  • Love that Moves the Sun and Other Stars

    This Little Black Classic offers but a small view at the Divine Comedy, and it is a fragmentary one at that. I understand the choice to provide several canto’s from different parts of the stories, but this made it more difficult to read this on its own. I have the full Divine Comedy as a… →

  • Broken Homes

    “It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others” Peter Grant in Broken Homes Broken Homes is the fourth PC Grant (though I keep calling this series Rivers of London) novel, the next book Foxglove Summer is due sometime… →

  • The Dolphins, The Whales and The Gudgeon

    I used to translate these fables in Greek class, and as such one spends a lot of time analyzing the structure even more than the actual stories. In this collection, I could focus on the stories. It is an introduction into Aesop and fables in general, so if you have already read some before, there… →

  • Whispers Under Ground

    In Peter Grant’s third adventure, the ethnically challenged wizard-apprentice detective constable is quite literally driven to the dark depths of London as he is trying to solve the murder on the son of an American senator which may involve some weird shit (e.g. Magic)… I’m not too familiar with Urban Fantasy, but from what I’ve… →

  • We Should All Be Feminists

    We Should All Be Feminists is one of the most powerful essays I’ve ever read, both in style and in subject. In just about 50 pages it perfectly captures why there is still such a need but does so without pointing fingers and by offering solutions instead. There’s everyday examples which very well prove the… →

  • Moon Over Soho

    I had really enjoyed reading the first book of this series, Rivers of London (also known as Midnight Riot), so I was obviously also very curious to this second book, Moon over Soho. Unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first book. Perhaps it was because I don’t know enough about… →

  • Rivers of London

    I first came across this book in Aachen, Germany, and it drew my attention almost immediately. Normally I’m not really a fantasy reader, let alone the even more specific terms like urban fantasy. I liked the writing style from what I read in the bookshop, and made a mental note of it. Still, in the… →

  • Trimalchio’s Feast

    Much has been written and said about Rome in the first century. Petronius however, gives a first-hand account of the decadent parties that were thrown in order to establish one’s position in the city. While interesting from a historical perspective, I didn’t really like this Little Black Classic. It’s translated, of course, and I think… →