“A few books, however,” writes Michael Dirda, “become lifelong companions, works we regularly turn to for comfort, solace, inspiration.” The reviewer identifies a slightly different category, “the books we find ourselves crazy about and hope to revisit someday,” as distinguished, I suppose, from such obvious standbys as Dante and Shakespeare. He names twenty-two books that “enchanted me when I first encountered them and that I look forward to rereading.” Enchantment is a rare quality, even among essential books.
Of the
titles Dirda lists, I’ve read seven, and of them the one I will most likely reread
is Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of
Glenn Gould by Kevin Bazzana. It was one of the first books I read after
moving to Houston almost twenty years ago. Gould has remained a musical hero
and intriguing personality since my brother and I were kids. The one previously
read title I can say with certainty I will never read again is Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson –
tedious, pretentious rubbish.
Two of Dirda’s
titles are new to me and sound tempting -- Collector’s
Progress by W.S. Lewis and Four
Studies in Loyalty’ by Christopher Sykes (Evelyn Waugh’s biographer). And I’ve
been stalling Lady Murasaki for decades.
About the books I’m “crazy about and hope to revisit someday,” it’s an eclectic batch: A.J. Liebling’s Between Meals, Mark Smith’s The Death of the Detective, Alexander Herzen’s My Past and Thoughts, John Dryden’s essays, Goncharov’s Oblomov.
2 comments:
The Well at the World's End by William Morris; Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West; The Ring and the Book by Robert Browning; Bleak House by Charles Dickens. All mountains to climb, but the view from the summit was so enthralling that I know I'll make the climb again someday.
In 1971, Look Magazine published an article in which Glenn Gould interviewed Artur Rubinstein, the Polish pianist and preeminent Chopin interpreter, and illustrates their polar opposite views of performing in front of an audience.
https://groups.io/g/HomageToArthurRubinstein/message/4600
Gould and Rubinstein died within a few months of each other in 1982, Rubinstein at 95, Gould at 50.
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