I have not published a post for the past two months. You might wonder what I have been doing. I have been writing the sequel of “The Stranger’s Enigma.” I still have a couple of chapters to go. I wish I knew how it is going to end.  The books I am reading include:

“El Asedio,” Arturo Perez Reverte

“In Search of the Lost Time” by Marcel Proust, which some critics consider as good as “Don Quixote” (?)  It is a long book and takes a while when one goes through the bulky volumes little by little. The exhaustive work fits Mark Twain’s definition of classic, “Something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.”

“Hanna Coulter: A Novel” by Wendell Berry

“Roughing it” by Mark Twain, a funny and enlightening book about the old American West.

“La Dama boba” by Lope de Vega

“The Abyssinian,” by Jean Christophe Rufin, which is the book I am presently reading.

“The Portrait of a Lady”  by Henry James, which I have read before a long time ago. The selected  snippet comes from this novel:

She had an unquenchable desire to think well of herself. She had a theory that it was only on this condition that life was worth living; that one should be one of the best, should be conscious of a fine organization (she could not help knowing her organization was fine), should move in a realm of light, of natural wisdom, of happy impulse, of inspiration gracefully chronic. It was almost as unnecessary to cultivate doubt of oneself as to cultivate doubt of one’s best friend; one should try to be one’s own best friend, and to give oneself, in this manner, distinguished company.

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Excellent advice from one of the greatest writers: Henry James. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Louis