November is German Literature Month

November is German Literature Month. Caroline of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy of Lizzy's Literary Life will host.

My reading list will include the novel Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky, and The Silent Angel by Heinrich Böll, translated by Breon Mitchell. Böll's posthumously published novel is also part of Caroline's "Literature and War Readalong 2011", slated for 26 November.

If there's still time, I might be able to squeeze in Anna Funder's Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall. The book was winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. I've already read a couple of chapters. Already, the beginning is quite compelling.

Giveaways abound in this reading challenge. In fact, I already won something wunderbar from last week. The prize: All the Lights by Clemens Meyer. I can't wait to receive that one.

German literature is something I really want to explore more of. Two of my all-time favorite writers wrote in this language – W. G. Sebald and Thomas Bernhard. Since I started blogging in 2009, I've reviewed a handful of translations from German. Here are the review links for reference.

Perfume by Patrick Süskind
Wittgenstein's Nephew and Yes by Thomas Bernhard 
The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald
          Chapter I; Chapter II; Chapter III; Chapter IV
          Chapter V-VIII; Chapter IX; Chapter X        
On the Natural History of Destruction by W. G. Sebald
          Air War and Literature, 1; Air War and Literature, 2
          Against the Irreversible; The Remorse of the Heart
The Stalin Front by Gert Ledig
Journey Into the Past and Chess by Stefan Zweig
Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

Addendum to the reading plan (June 2011)

In addition to the books mentioned in the previous post, I'll be flipping through the flip side of modern theater.

6. The Ubu Plays by Alfred Jarry, translated from the French by Cyril Connolly and Simon Watson Taylor

Aba, it's Ubu!

The inimitable bloggers Nicole of bibliographing and Amateur Reader of Wuthering Expectations are hosting the The Anything Ubu Readalong Opportunity.

My edition (thanks to J for picking me up a copy - the very last copy - at Fully Booked Rockwell) contains the three core Ubu texts: Ubu Rex, Ubu Cuckolded, and Ubu Enchained.

I'm already un-bored.



Ubu cross-posted.

Reading plan: June 2011

Here's my reading plan this month:

Design by Teammanila

1. El Filibusterismo (Subversion) by José Rizal, translated from the Spanish by Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin

The Filipino national hero is celebrating his 150th birth anniversary on June 19. In observance of it, the Malacañang Palace declared June 20 a non-working holiday. What better way to celebrate this than by reading one of his two masterpieces? The other one is Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) to which El Filibusterismo is the sequel.

Originally written in Spanish, the two novels are popularly known as the Noli and Fili. As I've written previously: "The novels of Rizal, the Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo, are the formative documents in the securing of Philippine independence from the Spanish government before the turn of the twentieth century. The tinder that set on fire the hearts and spirits of Filipino freedom fighters, they inspired the revolutionaries to fight for their own independence."

Incidentally, Penguin is coming up with a new translation by Harold Augenbraum (via The Literary Saloon). But I don't have this copy. The one I have is by Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin so that's the one I'm going to read and blog about. It was also her version (a superb version, I think) of the Noli which I read in 2009. I've previously read both books in English translation by Leon Ma. Guerrero. The books were required reading in school. I'm excited about this read because I personally prefer the Fili over the Noli, although both are great really. 


2. Austerlitz by W G Sebald, translated from the German by Anthea Bell

This is for a group read in the Sebald group in Shelfari. Our discussion starts in July. This will be the fourth selection of the group. Austerlitz won for its author and translator the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2002.


3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

This is the June selection by the Wolves. I sort of liked Díaz's short stories in Drown. Oscar Wao should be interesting, footnotes and irreverence and all.

4. The Japanese Literature Challenge 5, hosted by Dolce Bellezza, just took off today and I'm so hyped up I listed down the books I plan to read in the next 8 months. My short list comes to more than a dozen titles. Wishful thinking, I hope not. Last year I was able to finish 15 Japanese books, and this year I count 6 books already. As to which one to read first for this year's challenge, I'm thinking of finally starting something by Yasunari Kawabata or Shusaku Endo.


5. Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

The Your Face Tomorrow Group Read is being hosted by Richard at Caravana de recuerdos. The discussion of the first volume, Fever and Spear, will officially start at the end of the month. I will be joining in August for the finale - Poison, Shadow and Farewell. I heard there's a twist at the end of the book. A twist no one could have seen coming.

October 2010 is ...

Nobel Prize for Literature Month.

A new laureate will be announced and many will scratch their heads wondering why this writer was chosen. A handful of this writer's devoted fans will jump for joy. A speech will be delivered by this writer before the end of the year. And the world will continue to turn on its axis.

Meanwhile I plan to finish the following books ...

• Don Quixote - for the "Windmills for the Mind" whirlwind reading, hosted by Stu at Winstonsdad's Blog. It's supposed to end on September, but you know how it is with thickness.

• The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt - the Fall Read of Conversational Reading is now on its second week.

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - the Classic Group Read of one of my groups in Shelfari.

• Dance Dance Dance by Murakami Haruki - the 6th book in my ongoing "Murakami Q Reading Plan," in which I read the Japanese novelist's first 9 books in chronological order of their Japanese publication

• The Jaguar by João Guimarães Rosa - I've read the first three stories and so far the selection, translated by David Treece, are no less than brilliant. They show off, in dazzling prose, some recognized Rosean virtues such as neologism, stream of consciousness, and wordplay. I hope (pray) Prof. Treece takes on the dream project of bringing a new version of Grande Sertão: Veredas and the first publication in English of the novellas in Corpo de Baile. These two works, both originally published in 1956, are said to constitute the essential corpus of Guimarães Rosa, arguably the epitome of Latin American writing of the past century.

... and start another book by César Aira, a book from NYRB, and a collection of poems (by Akhmatova or Vallejo or Szymborska).

I humbly accept the prize of reading for pleasure, whether or not J. M. Coetzee finally snags the Nobel.

(tee-hee)