23 Comments

Quite impressive. Your comment about your father not giving the reading the same attention he once did intrigues me. As we age, do we become more ADHD, flitting from one thing to another? Or the eyes and mind don't become fatigued more quickly? The fact that you can read so much very complex material during the year is astonishing to me. Bravo!

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With regards to my dad, to read well, perhaps to read at all, requires concentration and to concentrate, to give attention makes physical demands upon us. It seems to me that most people do not understand that intellectual work IS work. In other words, to read well, to write well, to understand ideas demands something of us physically. It is not the same physical demands as picking up construction trash, for instance, but individuals who read, write, solve equations and so forth, DO get physically tired. And my dad is tired. The readings for this year were wonderful, indeed, filled with wonder. I do take time with the books. I try to learn from them. I listen for their questions. But believe me, I am a slow reader.

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True what you say about the physical side of intellectual work. Also, I've been amazed at how tired I get playing the piano, learning those pieces by heart and stressing over the mental lapses; however, over time, I've noticed I practice longer because my repertoire is growing, but I don't tire as quickly or as much. So progress is being made somewhere.

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And progress, even when it's somewhere, has to count.

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Ah... I see you made the Hamsun-Fante-Bukowski triple play! That alone is a good year in the stacks.

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I had never heard of Fante until I saw a John Julius Reel review of Ask the Dust. Then I read it. Gosh, what a wonderful novel.

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Herzog. I'm a complete addict. His work and life. Current reading, "Stoner" by John Williams and "The Rest is Memory," by Lily Tuck. At almost any time of day, I'm in a book. I love science, too. So many on your list are some of my favorites, especially by that author. "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville was the first book I finished. Reciting from memory the last paragraph to my then friend over coffee began our affair that has now lasted 50 years. Married the guy. Thank you for your list, Damon.

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This is lovely. Thank you for sharing this, Constance and for sharing your current reads. MOBY DICK is a novel that demands a return. I've heard a good deal about STONER, and a few people have recommended it to me. Currently I am reading BLEAK HOUSE and the much talked about WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY by Michiko Aoyama. I hope we both discover a few gems this new year.

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"Bleak House", lucky you. Said to be one of two of the greatest novels depicting early urbanization and sprawl. The other mentioned in that recent lit article was "Les Miserables." So we have London and Paris. Many more great novels do justice to the sweep of change in civilization at that time. Zola, I cannot help add. Good night. C.

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Well Damon.....you certainly followed Werner's advice. Im left wondering how you have time to do anything else ?

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I am an early riser, Mr. Passinault, and something of an insomniac. I can assure you that I am not a fast reader.

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Well, we shared Crime and Punishment, and Dorian Gray this year, Damon. Your list certainly is intriguing and engaging for my 2025 considerations… Thank you for your 2024 written pieces, all of which I enjoyed reading a great deal!

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Glad we could share a couple of reads, Jeff. If you run into any good ones during 2025 (coming shortly), send the titles my way and maybe I can check them out. And thank you for the kind words about reading my stuff. It's generous of you. Thank you for that.

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Good list..in our current world reading is akin to going to the gym..I have to dedicate time for it!

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It's true, and maybe like going to the gym, a little bit counts. Reading a page is, after all, reading a page.

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Beautiful ode to books & family. Wow, that is one hell of a comprehensive reading list! ✌🏼❤️📚

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Well, thank you, Ellen. There are a number of good reads on the list, and some of them are champions.

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well, its official, I am a total failure. (when it comes to reading) my goodness what a list. bravo

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I sense every stroke on your canvases. They mean a lot to me. I spent time on a Saskatchewan farm with my Norwegian great uncle and aunt and great-grandmother. The wheat fields and abandoned houses sat far apart under endless blue skies. So some especially of your works,Tabby Ivy, remind me of them. I myself enjoy painting, though my work is darn hard emotionally to do because it appears to come from someplace else and use me as a tool. You have worked so hard to create how many works? For so many who, I expect, find depth and congruence in your choices and style, they have a life too of their own. Constance

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oh thank you so much for your generous comments, Constance. I know what you are saying about paintings coming from someplace else. the paintings that are closest to me, and frankly, some touch me more than others... the ones that do hit home seem to come from a deeper place. those are the ones that I connect with most. if we can get in touch with what wants to be said, and be open to expressing it truthfully it is an exciting process. Some paintings truly do have a life of their own and we are just the conduit to give them life. I feel blessed when it happens. T

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Not a failure, Tabby Ivy--far from it!

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So many questions...Were some of these books that you read for the second or third time? Are there certain books that you return to again and again? Do you read ebooks or physical books?

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I read physical copies of the books. There are a couple of titles that are very familiar to me. The Wind in the Willows, for example, is a book I have read every year for the past 20 years. It is a book I love dearly, and I read it late in the year, after a deeper autumn arrives. A couple of the books, like the Baldwin and Du Maurier, are basically short stories published in the Penguin Modern series, and reading them keeps me in conversation with the best writers. Other titles and authors are entirely new to me. Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures, though currently celebrated, was new to me, as was Benjamin Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World. They are quite different books, though both are marvelous.

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