You have no idea what that means to me. Especially right now, in the midst of a sort of quarter-(or third of a)-life crisis about what I should really be doing. Many, many humble thanks to you. It is a pleasure to be a part of this community of real readers.

@@LeafbyLeaf Just stumbled across this comment a year later and I wholeheartedly agree.

Exactly. This is beautiful. I've been binging your videos.

Yes, I guess I really didn’t realize how chafed I still was about it! But you’ve made some great points. In fact, at this point I can’t imagine putting the time and energy into it. I’m not even sure what I would specialize in anymore. (At the time I was certain it was Gaddis.) When you put it the way you’ve put it, I am thankful and feel that the right thing happened. And for that I thank you!

Very kind words, my friend, and I thank you very much. It is a pleasure to connect with you and talk about these things. You posed great, complex questions and I was admittedly a bit on my toes. Hope you are doing well!

My favorite genres are probably: "books about books"; "books about reading"; and "books about writing." The latest of the lattermost was George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond.... Brilliant!

Thank you for the encouragement and affirmation!

You’ve made great points on the topic of translation. Admittedly Woods’s Schmidt translation was a bit of a hyperbolic example. This is a big topic and warrants its own video. I think about the Fowlie translations of Rimbaud and how on the one hand they are very close to literal French to English translations but the musicality is thereby completely lost. Between you and LSP I feel I am really missing out not having read Antunes. As for your first points about academia and likening me to Marilynne Robinson (one of my heroes), it’s going to take me a while to recover from the weight of your compliments.

Adding Fado Alexandrino to my TBR list. I'll have to check out James Alan McPherson, too

Great questions! Poe & Lovecraft I like them both but rarely get around to them much these days. I’m sure I’ll cycle back eventually. I liked Lovecraft’s really short stuff, especially stories like “From Beyond.” I wrote several papers on Poe in school. I’m particularly proud of one on “William Wilson” (perhaps my favorite of his stories). I think Poe has had a tremendous impact on literature though he was only really appreciated by the French early on (Baudelaire). He has probably informed horror and sci-fi more than the literary fiction community overall (in some circles it’s fashionable to hate on Poe; not sure why), but I love his overwrought sentences and twisted mind. The more you’ve got me thinking about him the more I want to reread some of his stories. Of his poems there are very few that I like (Alone and Ulalume). Poe is significant in Bottom’s Dream it should be noted. Music I get around to in my next Q and A video. But I like classical (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Satie, Debussy, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Handel, et al.); jazz (Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Monk, Gillespie, et al.). I also like heavier technical stuff like Animals As Leaders. And progressive stuff like Casimir Liberski. I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list: 1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover) 2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”) 3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare 4. Oxford Book of English Verse 5. The Critical Tradition 6. À la recherche du temps perdu 7. Don Quixote 8. Emerson’s essays 9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume) 10. Complete works of Montaigne

Thank you for the kind words and the encouragement! This is something I think about a lot: if I made my passion a profession would it purge the pleasure? Judging by my actual day-job and how I used to feel about the field, I believe it would indeed at least stifle my enthusiasm.

This is a beautiful statement! (And thanks for the Fink recommendation!)

How great! Congratulations! I appreciate the encouragement. May I ask what your thesis was?

@@LeafbyLeaf it was on Marcel Proust and the periodical press of his time. It ended up in a book published in FR called "Marcel Proust et la presse de la Belle Epoque" :)

Glad you’re enjoying hanging out around here-great to have you! 😁

Thanks-and welcome! Glad you got something out of the video. I try to exercise positive criticism as much as I can.

It's a good idea to look at all the different translations available, as some are better than others. For example Pevear & Volokhonsky's style is better for Dostoevsky than Tolstoy, so ive heard. But yeah don't get turned off of them, you cant learn all the languages in the world.

🙏👊🤟

My love for words is rooted in detention, where our warden thought it would be a punishment to have me copy definitions from a fusty copy of The American Heritage Dictionary. Thank you so much, Mrs. [Redacted]!

Thanks for asking them!

Thanks! I’ve only read Life: A User’s Manual, but I can tell you I want to get to everything he has published. Especially his lipograms (like A Void). I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list: 1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover) 2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”) 3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare 4. Oxford Book of English Verse 5. The Critical Tradition 6. À la recherche du temps perdu 7. Don Quixote 8. Emerson’s essays 9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume) 10. Complete works of Montaigne

Oh, I need to get more of his books, too! He was a fantastic writer. Great list, Chris! The only book I haven’t heard of before is number six. But I’m surprised “The Little Prince” is not on your best ten.

Admittedly I have never finished the Wake. But I have been talking to a few people recently about digging through the Wake soon. I just bought Joseph Campbell’s Skeleton Key and read the predatory material. My interest is high. I think you should definitely make a series!

@@LeafbyLeaf The Skeleton Key is a very impressive Wake reference, IMHO, especially considering it was published a mere 5 yr's after _GW._

HAHAHA!!! For this and the next Q&A video, I cobbled together a few different takes. :P

Hey! I’ll have to look into what that is.

Yes, that is definitely a problem. They usually take them but extend very meager store credit. Just another reason for me to be very selective about what I buy in the first place! But sometimes I will have a hunch that I am most likely going to take a book to a secondhand shop and I'll make notes outside the book (e.g. Where the Crawdads Sing; The Great Alone; The Terranauts).

Thanks! I really wish I could latch onto audiobooks because then I would find even more opportunities to “read”!

Thanks for this! I love lists so much-it’s like its own genre of literature. I’ll check this out.

Wow, thank you very much. What an honorable compliment. What makes it all worthwhile to me is people like you who also have the hunger for literature! Answers to your questions: 1. Rain Taxi is a paid subscription-based journal that mails out printed copies. They do, however, have an online edition and I've a few reviews out there. Here's one for the last book in the My Struggle cycle: www.raintaxi.com/my-struggle-book-six/. 2. I don't read a lot of periodicals, but the ones I read regularly are New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, Philosophy Now, Rain Taxi, and sometimes LitHub. 3. I've been treating my quarantine days just like normal workdays, so: yes! 4. I started as a developer. I've never been a tester, though I have much love for all QA people out there!

Hey there! At this point I cannot remember everything I talked about in my Q and A videos but I do remember sharing quite a few things. Is there anything in particular you want to know?

Your degree and ambitions when u was younger? Im a literature student in Sweden.

Very nice! I’ve been to Sweden many, many times (Göteborg)! I have a BA in computer science and an MA in literature. I’ve been a lifelong reader but started working in information technology at 15. I’ve been submitting my own writing for over 16 years. Three years ago I got my first book review published and I’ve been publishing book reviews ever since. I still work in IT (for Volvo, no less-Sweden!). But I do a lot of literary pursuits outside of that, including my channel. It’s a fun life!

@@LeafbyLeafDamn, i seee! Well, i really like your stuff and keep up the Amazing work. Where are your book reviews -except on yt- published so i can read?

A lot of my written reviews are published in print, but I’ve linked most of the online reviews on my little portfolio site. This site also has a link to the recent Great Concavity podcast episode on which I was a guest. chrisviabooks.wixsite.com/chrisvia

That's a very intriguing thesis! I have heard that idea of the zombie as the in-between or undead. Perhaps I read about it in one of Eugene Thacker's three books on the horror of philosophy.

@@LeafbyLeaf Wow! I did not expect a reply! Thank you so much. I will take a look on Amazon. If interested, I can email or drop a link to this comment to the journal I am publishing a piece for about this topic/thesis.

Send it along!

I love that!

No, I haven’t read any Stephenson, though I do have Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon on my shelves.

NO - Le Temps Retrouvé (/Time Regained) (1999) by Raoul Ruiz NO - Morte a Venezia (/Tod in Venedig) (1971) NO - Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick YES - A Clockwork Orange (1972) by Stanley Kubrick NO - Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick YES - The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick YES - Full Metal Jacket (1987 by Stanley Kubrick YES - Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick NO - The Dead (1984) by John Huston NO - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by David Fincher NO (- Gone Girl (2014) by David Fincher NO - Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin YES - There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson Tried to watch this over Christmas, but couldn't connect with it - Inherent Vice (2014) by Paul Thomas Anderson I'm not a big movie watcher. In a year, I probably watch about 5 movies. But last year I did watch Bela Tarr's Satantango (based on the Laszlo Krasznahorkai book) and Valerie's Week of Wonders (based on the Viteslav Nezval book). This year I plan to watch Zama and a couple other, so as to expand my acquaintance with film adaptations. Feel free to send me a list of those you most highly recommend. Thanks for this!

@@LeafbyLeaf I should have been more precise. I have edited my reply to correct my other mistakes, but have left that one there since it is more enlightening to deal with it here. After Barry Lyndon's commercial failure in the U.S. and commercial success in Europe, in 1975, which not only upset Kubrick the pragmatist, but also the Kubrick who liked his films to be seen by the widest possible audience,, tough he distrusted those he called the middle-brow, Kubrick made two versions of The Shining, both of which Stephen King hated and hates, though it's hard to understand why if one looks for a better adaptation of any of his work, one for the U.S. and one R.O.W. (rest of the world) one. I do not want to say any more about the two versions, since I cannot think of any information I can give beyond this which would not spoil the experience. I expect given where you are that you have seen the U.S. version, however the version I most highly recommend is the R.O.W. (Rest of the World) one, which is available in the U.S. However if you choose to see the R.O.W. version, I would urge you to get all arrangements made for you by a friend who has already seen both, since there is a lot of data you will find out if you look on your own, which ideally you would not know at all. I have a friend who did not realise there were two versions, and who was next to me, as close as possible to the centre of the first row where I always am if I can help it, and it is amongst the fondest of memories in my life seeing his reaction to what he had never seen before, and did not even know existed. I should have also included Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the above list. Pynchon likes Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation of his book if it helps to know that. Pynchon being Pynchon, Anderson had to let this be known in the most subtle way possible, but I know him well enough to know he would not lie about this. Pynchon liked Paul Thomas Anderson's films before he made this adaptation.

That’s very kind of you to say. Thank you so much! The PhD will likely be one of those lifelong what-would’ves, but I’m quite enjoying sharing the overflow of my reading candidly here. 😁

Hahaha, that’s a complicated answer but perhaps one day I’ll transition to professing. Until then, KZfaq is my classroom.

That’s awesome! I’ll bet my mom still has some of them. 😁

At this point, I can't remember what this may be in reference to, but--lol!

I think you have to have one to be a global citizen.

I think that's a compliment? (I can read this two ways.) :)

@@LeafbyLeaf haha, big compliment. I love what you're doing.

🙏🙏🙏

Well, hello there (again)! Yeah, I cannot remember where the idea even came from, but I would sit down at the family typewriter on the dining room table and bang out these short stories about spies in/from Bangladesh!

@@LeafbyLeaf That's so weird, man. Bangladesh police department is one of the the most corrupt in the whole world. And our capital city Dhaka is the perfect set up for crime fiction. I think our country even topped the charts for the most corrupt country three times in a row. If there were spies in Bangladesh they would be playing both sides and taking money from both that's for sure.

😆😆😆

Yes

@@LeafbyLeaf Have you read Hans Kung?

Well put! Hyper-specialization.

Very, very kind of you to say. In some way, I have found that being outside of the institution keeps me "pure" while also restricting my opportunities. I think I will eventually get my PhD, just not sure when. For now, I'm just having fun making and sharing these videos. :)

@@LeafbyLeaf Thank you for doing the videos. Your viewers love them. I only discovered you yesterday. Though thoroughly enjoying your shows, I feel overwhelmed for not having read contemporary fiction. I am stuck in the twentieth century and a post modern fan. Maybe you could do an episode to catch some of us up on the most important novels of the 21st century. Thank you.

Thanks so much! I actually feel that I don’t keep up with contemporary fiction enough to do that. Like you, I seem to stay in the twentieth century and earlier. I do try to read a handful of emerging fiction or recent fiction each year (especially to publish written reviews) but I don’t do a good job staying current. Still-I have been asked several times to offer my favorite twenty-first-century books, so perhaps.

I’ve spent a good amount of time there and made some great friends-but no, I’m not.

I don't understand the question.

I envy people who can lock in with them and retain comprehension. For my part, I am just not an auditory learner. That explains why I mispronounce so many words!

I just have to read at my own pace, or at times, I want to stop and reread an especially sublime passage. Plus, I don't want anybody else's voice in my head but my own!