Go ahead, John

Like many booklovers around the world, I am saddened by the news that John Updike has passed away at 76 from lung cancer (see the New York Times obituary). He was my favourite modern author, one whose intricate fictions captured the spirit (the good, the bad, and the ugly) of the post-war American middle classes.

One thing that I admired about Updike was his excellence across so many genres. Not only was he a fine novelist, but he should also be remembered for his short stories, poetry, and criticism. In particular, I have always thought that his poetry deserved to be better known. As well, his prodigous output of book reviews, esssays, and art criticism (in magazines such as the NYRB and the New Yorker), which I have always looked forward to, will certainly be missed.

This is the first time that an author I have followed in print for so long (well over 15 years now) has died. I have come to feel like I know the man, and his passing ahead has (suprisingly) affected me in a more than trivial way. We have lost one of our greats. You will be missed, John!

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Looking back at 2008

Another year of reading gone by! I have mixed feelings looking back on 2008. On the positive side, I was able to increase my reading over the previous year (even with the arrival of my second daughter) by finishing 50 books. Also, I am near completion of my project to read the complete Greek tragedies (all of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides). On the down side, and perhaps to be expected, I was unable to keep up with my ambitious schedule which called for about 100 books to be completed, and am especially disappointed at not being able to complete Herodotus and Thucydides.

It was difficult to choose my favorites for the year. The Greek tragedies had a profound impact on me, and I imagine re-reading many of them in the near future. In particular, the Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Sophocles’ Theban trilogy, and Euripides’ Trojan Women and Hecuba are standouts. My favourite non-classical reads for 2008 were Good To A Fault by Marina Endicott and The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci. Endicott’s novel, short-listed for the 2008 Giller prize, was a sublime examination of the notions of goodness and altruism, a novel of ideas presented around a fascinating cast of seemingly ordinary characters. It was a very pleasant surprise from a writer I did not previously know about. Ricci’s novel was a tour-de-force, a magnificent, sprawling, open-ended examination of life and death – a thought-provoking intellectual voyage. I’ll have more to say about these two soon.

The final list for 2008:

1. Alberto Manguel (2007) – The City of Words: The 2007 Massey Lectures
2. Jostein Gaarder (1995) – Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy
3. Aeschylus (c. 472 BC) – Persians
4. Aeschylus (c. 467 BC) – Seven Against Thebes
5. Aeschylus (c. 470 BC) – Suppliants
6. Will and Ariel Durant (1968) – The Lessons of History
7. Al Purdy (1996) – Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
8. Carlos Castenada (1968) – The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
9. Robert Pirsig (1974) – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Enquiry into Values
10. Sister Wendy Beckett (1996) – The Story of Painting
11. Aeschylus (c. 458 BC) – Agamemnon
12. Aeschylus (c. 485 BC) – Libation Bearers
13. Aeschylus (c. 485 BC) – Eumenides
14. M. Mitchell Waldrop (1992) – Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
15. Sophocles (c. 430 BC?) – Electra
16. Euripides (c. 415 BC) – Electra
17. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Nancy Milford (ed.) (2002) – The Collected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay
18. Sophocles (c. 440 BC) – Ajax
19. Will Durant (1935) – The Story of Civilization Volume 1: Our Oriental Heritage
20. Sophocles (c. 442 BC) – Antigone
21. Norman Ravvin (2002) – Hidden Canada: An Intimate Travelogue
22. Sophocles (429 BC) – Oedipus the King
23. Sophocles (401 BC) – Oedipus at Colonus
24. John Schreiner (2005) – The Wines of Canada
25. Sophocles (c. 431 BC) – Women of Trachis
26. Euripides (414 BC) – Heracles
27. Tom Wolfe (1981) – From Bauhaus to Our House
28. Robert Bly (2004) – The Insanity of Empire: A Book of Poems Against the Iraq War
29. John Steinbeck (1945) – Cannery Row
30. Joseph Campbell (2004) – The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work
31. Euripides (431 BC) – Medea
32. Euripides (428 BC) – Hippolytus
33. Romeo Dallaire (2004) – Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
34. Euripides (415 BC) – The Trojan Women
35. Francis Bacon (1620) – Novum Organum
36. Mary Swan (2008) – The Boys in the Trees
37. Rawi Hage (2008) – Cockroach
38. Mark Kingwell (2008) – Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City
39. Euripides (424 BC) – Hecuba
40. Anthony De Sa (2008) – Barnacle Love
41. Rivka Galchen (2008) – Atmospheric Distrbances: A Novel
42. Euripides (c. 408 BC) – Orestes
43. Margaret Atwood (2008) – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
44. Joseph Boyden (2008) – Through Black Spruce
45. Pierre Berton (1974) – Drifting Home
46. Bridget Stuchbury (2007) – Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World’s Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them
47. Marina Endicott (2008) – Good to a Fault
48. Nino Ricci (2008) – The Origin of Species
49. Harold Bloom (2001) – How to Read and Why
50. A.F. Moritz (2008) – The Sentinel: Poems

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