The best 100 novels and short stories in Italian (2011 - 2)

1 L'amica geniale, Elena Ferrante (2011)

2 Storia del nuovo cognome, Elena Ferrante (2012)

 

The best 100 novels and short stories in English (1883- 2015)

1 Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
2 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
3 The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)
4 A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)
5 The Lord of Château Noir, Arthur Conan Doyle (1894)
6 The Horror of the Heights, Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)
7 The Brazilian Cat, Arthur Conan Doyle (1908)
8 Lot No. 249, Arthur Conan Doyle (1894)
9 The Los Amigos Fiasco, Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
10 The Leather Funnel, Arthur Conan Doyle (1900)
11 Monsters, Emerald Fennell (2015)
12 Playing with Fire, Arthur Conan Doyle (1900)
13 The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Arthur Conan Doyle (February 1892)
14 The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, Arthur Conan Doyle (March 1892)
15 A Scandal in Bohemia, Arthur Conan Doyle (June 1891)
16 The Captain of the Polestar, Arthur Conan Doyle (1883)
17 Olalla, Robert Louis Stevenson (1885) 
18 Markheim, Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)
19 The Case of Lady Sannox, Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)
20 The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,  Arthur Conan Doyle (January 1892)
21 The Man with the Twisted Lip, Arthur Conan Doyle (December 1891)
22 The Red-headed League, Arthur Conan Doyle (August 1891)
23 The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Arthur Conan Doyle (April 1982)
24 The New Catacomb, Arthur Conan Doyle (1898)
25 The Nightmare Room, Arthur Conan Doyle (1921)
26 How It Happened, Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)
27 The Five Orange Pips, Arthur Conan Doyle (November 1891)
28 The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Arthur Conan Doyle (October 1891)
29 A Case of Identity, Arthur Conan Doyle (September 1891) 
30 The Brown Hand, Arthur Conan Doyle (1899)
31 The Terror of the Blue John Gap, Arthur Conan Doyle (1910)
32 The Ring of Thoth, Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)

The list in chronological order:

16 The Captain of the Polestar, Arthur Conan Doyle (1883)

17 Olalla, Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)
18 Markheim, Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

2 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

4 A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)

1 Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome (1889)

3 The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)
32 The Ring of Thoth, Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)

15 A Scandal in Bohemia, Arthur Conan Doyle (June 1891)
22 The Red-headed League, Arthur Conan Doyle (August 1891)
29 A Case of Identity, Arthur Conan Doyle (September 1891)
28 The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Arthur Conan Doyle (October 1891)
27 The Five Orange Pips, Arthur Conan Doyle (November 1891)
22 The Man with the Twisted Lip, Arthur Conan Doyle (December 1891)

20 The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,  Arthur Conan Doyle (January 1892)
13 The Adventure of the Speckled Band,  Arthur Conan Doyle (February 1892)
14 The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, Arthur Conan Doyle (March 1892)
23 The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Arthur Conan Doyle (April 1982) 
9 The Los Amigos Fiasco, Arthur Conan Doyle (December 1892)

19 The Case of Lady Sannox, Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)

5 The Lord of Château Noir, Arthur Conan Doyle (1894)
8 Lot No. 249, Arthur Conan Doyle (1894)

24 The New Catacomb, Arthur Conan Doyle (1898)
30 The Brown Hand, Arthur Conan Doyle (1899)

10 The Leather Funnel, Arthur Conan Doyle (1900)
12 Playing with Fire, Arthur Conan Doyle (1900)

7 The Brazilian Cat, Arthur Conan Doyle (1908)

31 The Terror of the Blue John Gap, Arthur Conan Doyle (1910)

6 The Horror of the Heights, Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)
26 How It Happened, Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)

25 The Nightmare Room, Arthur Conan Doyle (1921)

11 Monsters, Emerald Fennell (2015) 

Apologies for the interruction

Mi dicono che in questi casi si dice

Baruch Dayan Ha Emet

ossia "Benedetto il Giudice di Verità".

E' una bella espressione.

Jorge Damonte
Montevideo, 6 luglio 1931 - Padova, 1 gennaio 2012

Wierd Reads: Terrorist Tintin

Cartoon of the day: SMBC

Quote of the day

Christgau is right, these lines are surely brilliant:

And the signifieds butt heads with the signifiers
And we all fall down slack-jawed to marvel at words
While across the sky sheet the impossible birds
In a steady, illiterate movement homewards

but my favourite lines are these (and I don't apologise if they sound sentimental):

And the rest of our lives will the moments accrue
When the shape of their goneness will flare up anew
And we do what we have to do, re-loo re-loo
Which is all you can do on this side of the blue
Oh it's all that you can do on this side of the blue

The song is called This Side of the Blue, from the The Milk-Eyed Mender by Joanna Newsom.

A good read is like reading your autobiography ...

... written by someone else.

I am reading the Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, and just read this in the essay Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading:

How beautiful to a genuine lover of reading are the sullied leaves, and worn out appearance, nay, the very odour (beyond Russia), if we would not forget kind feelings in fastidiousness, of an old "Circulating Library" Tom Jones, or Vicar of Wakefield! How they speak of the thousand thumbs, that have turned over their pages with delight!—of the lone sempstress, whom they may have cheered (milliner, or harder-working mantua-maker) after her long day's needle-toil, running far into midnight, when she has snatched an hour, ill spared from sleep, to steep her cares, as in some Lethean cup, in spelling out their enchanting contents! Who would have them a whit less soiled? What better condition could we desire to see them in?

and realised I am that lone sempstress now, snatching an hour from sleep to steep my cares in a cup of tea.

It is always nice to find a good friend you did not know you had, but who knows you well, as a true friend should.