Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco is included among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, along with my Eco favorite The Name of The Rose- the former is only 1233rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, while the latter is up there, in the stratosphere, at 118, vindicating somewhat my lack of enthusiasm for the Pendulum…now for this senseless advertising, where I am supposedly sending you to visit my blogs, where I have more than five thousand notes on books from the aforementioned list, films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other compilations https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco is included among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, along with my Eco favorite The Name of The Rose- the former is only 1233rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, while the latter is up there, in the stratosphere, at 118, vindicating somewhat my lack of enthusiasm for the Pendulum…now for this senseless advertising, where I am supposedly sending you to visit my blogs, where I have more than five thousand notes on books from the aforementioned list, films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other compilations https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

 

7 out of 10, which is undeserved, given that critics have it at 9 out of 10, or higher

 

I have been elated by and read twice The Name of The Rose https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-name-of-rose-by-umberto-ecco.html by Umberto Eco, some years ago

 

In fact, I think one of the times must have been the play adapted from the book, the film with Sean Connery in the leading role – sir Ben Kingsley was there, or I am hallucinating – is not included here, though it has been on various channels multiple times, not a bad idea, notwithstanding the fact that it is not at the level of the book

With Foucault’s Pendulum it is a question of having too high expectations, among other things, and Positive Psychology https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/positive-psychology-by-kate-hefferson.html warns about that

 

“The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” This is a quote I like to remember, almost on a daily basis, because here is the elixir we are all searching for

Nonetheless, we can take this nice statement and look at possible significance: if you read the book that makes you ecstatic, then you are in heaven, but if there are issues, like with Foucault’s Pendulum, then maybe you have to

 

Consider options: The Pendulum is not working for this reader – “The modern novel should be largely a work of reference most authors spend their time saying what has been said before- usually said much better. True for reviews A wealth of references to existing works would acquaint the reader instantaneously with the nature 🤔 of each character” this applies here as well, and it is so helpful to know this

Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-letters-of-kingsley-amis-edited-by.html wrote the above so I do not need to bother too much with what impact my lines would have

 

-          Club Zero

 

Club Zero is an interesting, indie movie, in which a class is encouraged by this bizarre teacher to change their diets, good and fine, only she pushes them down to…Zero, as in no more food, it crossed my mind now

Everything has been said, so here we have just an expression of taste, ‘de gustibus’, and surely, I can see that The Pendulum is quite impressively, majestic, but the more important question is does it work for me?

 

“It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” CS Lewis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/surprised-by-joy-shape-of-my-early-life.html

Indeed, it looks as if I better try a book that I found exhilarating, that keep pushing and moaning through The Pendulum, or any other chef d’oeuvre for that matter, when it really does not appeal to this feeble, lazy reader

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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