Book notes

what I’ve been reading lately:

  • The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John BellairsPuffin Books, 1993 (originally The Dial Press, 1973)

    I’m sure I read this book as a kid and liked it, though by the time I picked it up as an adult I had forgotten just about everything about it, including the fact that it was illustrated by Edward Gorey. I’m glad I re-read it, because it’s really satisfying, right from the start. I

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  • Montmorency and the Assassins by Eleanor UpdaleScholastic, 2007 (originally 2005)

    I found this book on the sidewalk and picked it up without having heard of this author or the series (this book is the third of four, but it works as a stand-alone story as well). It seemed promising—London! Italy! Intrigue! 1898!—but as I started reading, I was a little grumpy. The story opens with

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  • Finishing The Fugitive, and taking a break from Proust

    I just finished The Fugitive, and it was good, and I am glad to be done with it. The “Sojourn in Venice” section was of course really pleasing, water and light and history and beauty and art, a brief boring digression on politics/diplomacy aside. There’s a surprise telegram (with an added twist) that makes our

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  • More in The Fugitive: “Mademoiselle de Forcheville”

    The “Mademoiselle de Forcheville” section of The Fugitive starts out funny, which is refreshing: our narrator’s doing his usual thing of walking around looking at girls, he sees a group of three and tries to follow them but fails when they get in a carriage. But then, joy of joys, he sees them leaving his

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  • The first part of The Fugitive

    With Albertine gone, our narrator immediately starts thinking of how to get her back: in contrast to the inaction of The Captive it feels like he’s suddenly all action, though really he’s still all talk: he decides he’ll marry her, but writes telling her how good it is that they’ve parted; he sends Saint-Loup to

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  • Book-shopping in London

    In January I went to Cambridge (UK) for a few days for work: I arrived on a Wednesday, went in to the office for workshops with colleagues on Thursday and Friday, had pleasing dinners (including one at Alimentum), and did a little evening walking around town. Because transatlantic airfare is so much cheaper if there’s

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  • Finishing The Captive, moving on to The Fugitive

    The rest of The Captive has been pleasing (though slow) reading. I last posted a quote from page 160-something; between there and the end there is: Albertine’s trip to the theatre cut short by the narrator’s jealousy, an afternoon carriage ride, Albertine’s visit to the Verdurins forestalled by the narrator’s jealousy, the narrator’s own visit

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  • The Captive: the “litanies of small trades”

    Despite my initial ambivalence toward The Captive—picking it up then putting it down, picking it up and reading but feeling like it was going to be a tedious and claustrophobia-inducing recitation of jealousies— I’m now really enjoying it, and have been since around page 100. Part of this might have just been me getting back

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  • More in The Captive: Gazing out of Windows

    Besides jealousy, what’s at the center of The Captive is immobility—perhaps not surprisingly, given the volume’s title. At the very start of the book we learn that the narrator spends most of his time in his bedroom, so that’s where we mostly are, too. Sometimes it’s claustrophobic (as is that squirm-inducing jealousy I wrote about

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  • What I Read in 2009, Numerically Speaking

    Reading everyone else’s end-of-year posts, plus reading Jenna Freedman’s Lower East Side Librarian Reading Log 2009, made me want to make a wrap-up post of my own. In 2009 I did not read as many books that I own as I wanted to—though I hope that will change in 2010 with the help of the

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