Ataraxia

  La Cipolla aka The Onion by Aldo Nicolaj   8 out of 10     Aldo Nicolaj has only two works on Goodreads, La Cipolla aka The Onion and The World of Water, the former has a grand total of two reviews to its name, with zero reviews and the latter has no rating, and ditto for notes, hence I thought I might bless the name with the first notice, however irrelevant this will be and unrelated   Last night, they had Hamlet in Sos Picant aka Hamlet in Spicy Sauce, by Aldo Nicolaj, albeit this is non existent on the site, in the old days, I could introduce some entry, but now, I have to be a librarian or something, which in some ways sounds good, you could not have any unauthorized moron play with the site Or could you?   Games People Play is a psychology classic https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/games-people-play-by-eric-berne.html by Eric Berne, and yes, people play on Goodreads – but let me introduce a spoiler alert, before I set myself free and just focus on the topi

  On The Happy Life, Providence by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the richest men of ancient, and presumably also of all time, one of a dozen notes on Seneca and the stoics is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/despre-viata-fericita-aka-on-happy-life.html we need stoicism to face the American elections   10 out of 10   It is the proper time to read or take on again Seneca, the Stoics, Michel de Montaigne https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/11/on-vanity-aka-de-la-vanite-by-michel-de.html great luminaries that could help us get over the stress of the coming days, this is the Sunday before November 5   Nevertheless, we could try and be Panglossian https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/candide-or-optimist-by-voltaire.html proclaiming that ‘we live in the best of all possible worlds’, regardless of the upcoming Armageddon, what with Orange Jesus favorite (2 in 3 at betting houses) to be the most powerful man on earth So let us listen t

  All Souls’ Day by Cees Nooteboom - this is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, but not as good as Regency Buck, my note on the latter is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/regency-buck-by-georgette-heyer-is.html together with a few hundred other reviews   7 out of 10   The verdict here is I did not find the gumption to move along with Arthur Daane, the Dutch hero of this novel, and we could in fact end this note here: the book was not for me, it is surely a good read for more astute readers, although it has had a rating scale ranging from "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish"   Publishers Weekly said: "Nooteboom's attempt at an intellectual novel is worthy of respect, but Arthur and his friends are frustratingly static in their habits and thoughts, their perorations inflated with hot air. More enervating than invigorating, the book fails to communicate the vitality of a life of thought”

  Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky – a book with an incredible history, the author, Jewish -Ukrainian, has been killed in the Holocaust, and many decades later, the book would be published, this was possible because her daughters kept the manuscript…also, this is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list   9 out of 10   With hindsight, I would say that this tragic, paradoxical, and such a sad omen, if the author writes about the love between defeated French, Lucile in particular, but also the hatmaker, and German occupiers (evidently, along with many other issues) Irene Nemirovsky would be taken by the Nazis and killed at Auschwitz   Early on, we have the description of the fall of France, in World War II, people leave Paris, they have to find petrol for the cars, also to get them repaired when possible, everything is hard, or impossible to find, at one point, Madame Pericaun is desperate and offers money to a man who has a donkey, to take them away Also, th

  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – what it means with the paramount elections taking place next week, wherein Orange Jesus aka a version of the psychopath Alex has 2 in 3 chances at the betting houses of getting the dictatorship he wants – a previous look at this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-clockwork-orange-by-anthony-burgess.html where you find thousands of other reviews… And a lot about Orange Alex, a calamity, but likely to be president next week, just like the mass suicides of the past   10 out of 10   This is the fourth time I take on A Clockwork Orange and I think it is not the last – Insha’Allah, you never know, with Orange Felon favorite to win the most powerful job in the world, however diminished if the fool is getting it, who knows what will happen, maybe this will be a province in Russia, and I will be in the gulag   They did bring communism here before, we had Ceausescu and I stood up and fought against tyranny, here is the proof http

  On Vanity aka De la Vanite by Michel de Montaigne, his essays have been included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, I have a few notes on some of these brilliant thoughts at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/letters-and-essays-of-montaigne-volume.html and other reviews   10 out of 10   The essays of Michel de Montaigne are so wonderful helpful, substantive, meaningful that my plan is to continue reading them for the foreseeable future, in small installments, a few pages this morning, some more on Monday, next week, so tat the pleasure lasts and the wisdom has time to sink in, Insha’Allah, with patience   One major advantage is that they make us think, as opposed to some other oeuvres that fail to stimulate the under signed -one recent example is The Transit of Venus https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-transit-of-venus-by-shirley-hazzard.html one of the important works… Actually, one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but which failed to ke