Ataraxia

  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is part of the most important lists, sitting at number four on The Greatest Books of All Time site, part of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, also in The Bokklubben World Library Top 100   9 out of 10   I rate this as a 9 out of 10 more for nostalgic reasons than considering the latest experience, and I surely ponder the embarrassment of seeing more than a million ratings on Goodreads, see all the good and illuminati acclaim this magnum opus (allegedly) and find this modest reader bark at the wrong tree, rejecting Marquez   Nevertheless, it is like this: reading One Years of Solitude for the first time was a delightful sensation – I even think I remember where some of this happened, in Herculane – then came a second try, and it was not pleasant, and now, because I am checking this new site to see what AI aka an algorithm says about books, I said:   -       ...

  Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind, there is more at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html   9 out of 10   As a cinephile, I must say that this book was exhilarating, and it caused some pain at the same time, for most of the film makers included, that is all the demi gods of 1960s and 1970s, come out rather discredited, what with the drugs they took, all, with just a few exceptions, the abuses, dishonesty, mean acts   We know from the splendid Intellectuals https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson about the luminaries, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and how awful they could be outside their magnum opera, so thespians and directors could obey the same rules The name of this enchanting book comes from the independent movie that has caused a sen...

  A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell Majestic, grandiose, epic, monumental…for another look at this and other spectacular chef d’oeuvres you could go to:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E With twelve volumes you cannot get better, more meaningful and yet jocular entertainment than this… -            Except perhaps for Marcel Proust The spectacular Anthony Powell has been compared with Proust, albeit some found him superficial and criticized him. To my surprise and displeasure, V.S. Naipaul, whose Bend in the river and House for Mr. Biswas I loved, said something like this: -            “It is good that I had not studied the work of Anthony Powell -            This way we stayed friends- he did look it over, after the death of the miraculous-for me- master” This epic, phenomenal ...

  Man’s search for meaning by Victor Frankl   This is an extraordinary book, written by an exceptional man: apart from his academic credentials-impeccable- Victor Frankl has been through 4 concentration camps. As a Holocaust survivor (even if I‘ve seen a French movie which pretends that we should not use holocaust, because giving this name is not right, it is the one used by the Nazis) Victor Frankl has learned a lot about the Meaning of life and the fact that having a “Meaning „is the key: in the camp, those who lost the meaning capitulated and died. Frankl quotes Nietzsche: the one who has the WHY can cope with almost any how”.   In the first part of the book, Victor Frankl describes the horrors of the camp, making differences between the good and the few bad kappos, the prisoners who helped the others and those who were cruel. As opposed to Freud, doctor Frankl believes people are not mainly driven by sexual urges, but by a “superior” motive: meaning. He also believes ...

  The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz Fabulous Classic- 10 out 10     This is one of the classics of psychology and it is also accessible, entertaining and a very rewarding read. And to think that I nearly missed it. I have started the book quite some time ago, maybe one year ago only to be disappointed by the beginning. The first chapter and its impact on me confirm actually one of the important points in the Paradox of Choice. -            When we are faced with too many choices we do not end up happier…on the contrary This is what I may have experienced, when starting to read this work I got tired with the choices that the author talked about. He is in a shop where he tries to buy some jeans, unaware of the way they are sold nowadays, in a multitude of options- -            Pre washed, with cuts, a wide variety of colors, sizes and shapes. Faced with an infinity of c...

  The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni is found on the 435 th place on The Greatest Books of All Time site and is part of The 1,000 Novels Everyone must Read compilation – I take some looks at these lists on my blog, at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html where you find hundreds of reviews   7 out of 10   I will take the Holden Caulfield attitude https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/catcher-in-rye-by-jd-salinger-is-number.html on this and fuss about what is otherwise a recognized, excellent work, included on the GOAT new site, and the older 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, plus some others, clearly part of the curriculum in Itakly   This new Greatest Books of All Time site puzzles me, for I get that they use a smart algorithm, taking into account several established canons, only you find some really unexpected works in the lowest or highest places – take Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie...

  Lake Wobegon Days Nine out of 10 Now that America – or maybe we should say Erica, given that there is a Norwegian community in Lake Wobegon that argues against the present name of the USA, taken as it is from Amerigo Vespucci, who had had little to do with the once great nation, instead of choosing the much more suitable King Eric and somehow Erica appears to be more appropriate for the country that has the leader that is the laughing stock of the world– is preparing for the next elections and the crossroads that are there, we might take some ideas, valuable information from this amusing book that looks at the different aspects of life in an ordinary town, if a fictional one at that. We can identify in Lake Wobegon Days some of the presumptive supporters of the Very stable Genius that has brought so much shame on the USE, United States of Erica, and disillusion mixed with a little bit of glee – the under signed had thought about moving to Erica in the nineties, when he had been w...