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I promise to show up, but not for a couple more days. I have to finish something else first.

As one of the commentators said, in the full-length version of the article: "In the first place, one way the United States has embraced the concept of world culture is through immigration. Each generation, beginning in the late 19th century, has recreated the idea of American literature."...

I read this years ago and remember no particulars except that I enjoyed it. The one I liked even better - and remember more about - is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived at the Castle. That one did give me a chill.

I finally did read War and Peace last year. I thought it was terrific. Don't wait for it to become a book of the month. Since it was so long, my approach was to savor it, reading perhaps 40-50 pages and day and interspersing it with other books. I don't remember how long it took but I was sad...

I'm just an on-looker, but the only ones I have read at all have been Oats, Roth, DeLillo and Murakami. Murakami is a recent experience (Kafka on the Shore) and I am very impressed.

Some of his later movies were superb. As he aged he went right on bringing us himself. As a resident of Connecticut I never saw Paul Newman, but felt his influence. His profits from Newman's Own (tomato sauce, salad dressing, popcorn) all went to charity, much of it local. His foundation was...

Thank you for your clear description of New Criticism and your examples. Your explanation is much better than anything I received in college, where New Criticism was much in vogue at the time. The complexities of the later novels of Henry James were greatly admired and New criticized. For me...

McCain Fortress Palin Good grief!

Who would Dilbert vote for? The loser.

1. Used, from local library and charity sales. 2. I regularly visit sales and also swag sites like Bookmooch. 3. From no time to about 3 days. 4. Quite a bit. In book groups we exchange recommendations. 5. By experience with the author or to pursue a particular topic. 6. No. 7. No idea...

My interpretation of her was that she was repelled by sex (after her marriage) and, still more important, wanted to keep control of her life. She enjoyed having Bazarov around, but was avoiding any sort of emotional involvement.

I have read Fathers and Sons several times over the years, and each time I go back to it I am more impressed by the characterization of Bazarov. No wonder both sides (the traditionalists and those wanting change) were angry at Turgenev's presentation of the nihilist. "A nihilist is a person...

Good mysteries/ A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman (Indian pots, the American southest) Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey, church bells) A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Ben Franklin and Mark Twain never finished the high school level of formal education. Emily Dickinson had one year of college. But those were different times and they fit into their times comforably, when higher levels of formal education were not expected and so their self esteem was not...

I have read all of Mistry's novels and many of his short stories. His characters engage me. It seems that, like Dickens, he can create believable characters who are of their time and culture and, through these characters, you come to understand their world. A very good movie was made of Such...

I just finished Rudin, an earlier, less popular novel by Turgenev. It is not overtly political, yet Rudin is almost entirely a character study, a depiction of an eloquent romantic who is all words and no deeds. But Turgenev is so wonderfully fair. At first Rudin's dramatic oratory holds our...

I thought that a coffee table book is a book so large and so heavy that, if you put four legs under it, you have a coffee table.

I remember when Bush's father picked Dan Quayle and we were told that Quayle would attract female voters because he was young and handsome. Bah! Palin may be gifted, but her ideology is terrible and she has little experience to qualify her to take over the presidency. And Hillary supporters...

"As I considered my terrible situation, I wondered: to be or not to be?" In my view, this is not plagiarism because, in context, the narrator is quoting Shakeseare's line to express his thought. "Can God or Satan counsel me Whether to be Or not to be?" This is plagiarism, taking...