Ataraxia

  Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, The Modern Library’ Best 100 Novels, TIME 100 Best English Language Novels lists and it is ranked 158 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, alas, it is not one of my favorites – you have thousands of reviews on magnum opera from the aforementioned web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel where my macaws are the main attraction   6 out of 10   The How of Happiness https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html is a magnificent book by Sonja Lyubomirsky in which you find the rules of happiness, or activities , including ‘Happiness Activity No 8: Increasing FLOW Experiences-increasing the number of experiences at home and working which you LOSE YOURSELF, which are challenging, absorbing’ and I was thinking about that   I have written in the first lines about the ...

  Queen Victoria on the throne the country scene is only a little over fifty years distant from us in time, but in manners, customs, conditions of life it is centuries away…the cottages were like the dwelings of the poor had been for generations, except for some minor details   this was the eighteen eighties Bycicles on roads to themselves, like railway trains …high wheel, and tiny one behind, hence ‘bycicle face’ tortured expressions – still, they were figures of fun, nobody would belive that in a few years there would be at least one bycicle in every one of their houses   Humor like this servant, called girl, who is about 50, always called girls also cousin Johnny may go to Eaton but Laura thought she heard ‘eaten’…then her father said I doubt it will be good enough, they will have to build a new school for Johnny…girls said to Laura such a good talk, but they did all of it, then told stories about boyfriends, the boys unaware of this aledged connection   ...

  Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry ‘is widely regarded as one of the greatest 20th ‑ century English ‑ language works - In 1998 Modern Library ranked Under the Volcano at number 11 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, it is 63 rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where the macaws overwhelm   8 out of 10 because I could not grasp it, but it is certainly a 10 out of 10   I could not read Ulysses, but I still found resources for https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/araby-by-james-joyce-mesmerizing.html his short stories, Dubliners, ergo I may have to try this scheme with Malcolm Lowry, check the list of his oeuvres and pick something else, somehow, Under the Volcano covered with me under the eruption     Al...

  Out of The Shelter by David Lodge was longlisted for the Booker Prize, it does not exist on The Greatest Books of All Time site, where I looked for it and found Changing Places, a chef d’oeuvre for me, at 1754 th and other magnum opera by the same author even lower down the ranks…notwithstanding this algorithm, which I will be tempted to avoid in the future, this oeuvre was perfect for the under signed – you find thousands of reviews on works from the GOAT and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where my macaws shine   10 out of 10   David Lodge https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html is one of my favorite authors, and Out of The Shelter was perfect in my view, in an afterword, the author says that some of his friends prefer this to his other novels, I do not know if I will go that far, but I was mesmerized   Timothy You...

  By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, allegedly, nonetheless, it is only 2456 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, not to mention that I did not even think I should bother after the first few pages – you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera and lesser works from the aforementioned and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube page, where my macaws steal the show   6 out of 10   I love poetry https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-sonnets-by-shakespeare-is-supposed.html I even know three or five sonnets, including: ‘My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desperate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except…’   The introduction to By Grand Station I sat Down and Wept says: ‘I doubt if there are more than half a dozen mast...

  Hurrah for St Trinian’s by Ronald Searle is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but it is only 4310 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews on magnum opera from these and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   7 out of 10   Molesworth https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/down-with-skool-by-geoffrey-willans.html is another book by Ronald Searle, written with Geoffrey Willans, which is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, I have read two parts, and I still have the third and last, except the enthusiasm has diminished   The jokes, drawings are not bad, but they appear somewhat lame, take this one in which a man cancels his trip to Venice, on the phone and we see his bathroom in the background, and the fact that he has plumbing issues, ergo a little lagoon is about to be created at home, why bother to go all the way to Italy fo...