Ataraxia

  Changing Places by David Lodge is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but just 1716 th on The Greatest books of All Time site, it has just fallen out of my Top 200 Favorite Books, perhaps by the end of this note I will know where to place it; you have six reviews of oeuvres by David Lodge and hundreds of others on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   8 out of 10   When I first read Changing Places https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html I was so exuberant and dazzled – other less faltering words come to mind – that I have rated it 14 out of 10, and placed it within my Top 200 Favorite Novels, now, after the second encounter, there is less euphoria   On the contrary, even if I will not dismiss this and say it is bad, I am left with some images that may have been mirthful, maybe some ten years back, I cannot recall when I had read this for...

  Is This Anything by Jerry Seinfeld shows up when you search for it on The Greatest Books of All Time site, although without any ranking, not even 17003 rd , which is where I found Student Dima, a work that is already reviewed on my blog   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html ‘Pretentious, moi?’ seems to me to define Seinfeld 8 out of 10   Jerry Seinfeld https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-seinfeld-scripts-by-jerry-seinfeld.html is one of the most successful comedians in the world, he may be one billion dollars’ worth – I was going to say by now, but he could have reached that figure years ago, this may explain in part his sarcasm, albeit he had been like that in the past   His humor is contagious, except there is an element there that I don’t find exhilarating, not that it matters, except in this corner, and even this ‘critic’ must confess that he has watched Seinfeld with pleasure, and no...

  Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann is one of The Bokklubben World Library’s Greatest 100 Books of All Time, the Swedish Academy identified "the great novel Buddenbrooks" as the principal reason for The Nobel Prize awarded to Thomas Mann, it is ranked 88th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, and it is one of my favorites – for more reviews you could visit https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   10 out of 10   I have been reading The Buddenbrooks https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/buddenbrooks-by-thomas-mann-is-one-of.html for the second time and I must say I am so surprised at how much I like it, it has become one of my Top 100 Favorites, and I hope to be able to read this again, a few years from now, for the third time   William Faulkner considered it to be the greatest novel of the 20th century, and we can see why; this is a second note, in just a matter of a few days, I have passed the point wh...

Daughter of Lucien, granddaughter of Sigmund   Like us, they run out of money, and powdered milk…and their toothpaste had run out in the first few weeks of spring   Lotus position because feet look like the lotus flower Links to instant and sheltering sky   It wasn’t until we were halfway through France that we noticed Maretta wasn’t talking. John was doing the driving, he was Maretta’s husband Bea, mother, Danny- they must have had a van Indeed, it broke   Mother says she wants to become a Sufi, observing Ramadan, praying, anyway, she used to meditate – Sufi was the mystical side of Islam she buys prayer rug, follows ritual wake up at dawn fasting fro Ramadan…then adventure to Algiers she wants to visit Zaouia, truck, left alone on this mountain bread, then no moneey Traditional dress, cooking, also Majoun, which is hashish pounded into a sweet like fudge…mother said it will make them drunk, but then allowed them   Mellah is the name of ...

  Elevul Dima dintr-a VII a by Mihail Drumes is not the best book you can read, on the contrary, I would say it is to be avoided, not that there is a chance in a million to get into your hands any time soon, unless you live in this part of the world, where the oeuvre was quite popular, I don’t know about now…you find thousands of reviews of better works on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   7 out of 10     Mircea Cartarescu https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/10/irish-coffee-by-mircea-cartarescu.html would be a much better choice, if you are looking for a contemporary, Romanian writer, in fact, he has been mentioned in connection with the Nobel Prize, and although that is subjective, he does have a chance…   While Student Dima is only 17003 rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, Cartarescu has his Nostalgia at 1582, and furthermore, I see people on Goodreads posting about hi...

  On The Edge of Death by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov, this is a short story by two of the greatest writers of Russia and the world, authors of the splendid Golden Calf and The Twelve Chairs, tow of the best one hundred comedies, if you ask me – you find reviews of these and thousands of other magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and YouTube channel Ostap Bender vs Orange Caligula 8 out of 10   I will read the divine Ilf and Petrov again https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-golden-calf.html and I would say again, in the meantime, I have found the adaptations of some of their oeuvre for The National Radio, and noted on The New Robinson Crusoe the other day, the note should be on the blog by now   If not another Golden Calf, The New Robinson Crusoe is mordant, amusing, sarcastic: this poet is made to venture into novel writ...