December 27, 2009

XMAS BOOKS.

Finally got my computer back, but I'm still recovering from the holiday, so I'll just list the books I found under the Xmas tree (a balsam this year—we decided fragrance was important to us):

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow, by Anders Nilsen (thanks, Eric!)

The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated, by Nabokov (thanks, Brooke!)

And two from those commenters sans peur et sans reproche, AJP and jamessal (you guys are nuts, but I'm not about to sic the nice men with the butterfly nets on you):

Zhivago's Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia, by Vladislav Zubok

Diary, 1901-1969, by Kornei Chukovsky

I'm almost done with the Zubok, one of the best books I've ever read on Russian cultural history, and will be reporting on it shortly; there will doubtless be more to say on the others as I get to them. Books always put me in that ho-ho-ho spirit!

Posted by languagehat at December 27, 2009 08:52 PM
Comments

"Wolf Hall": just as good as they all said it was.

Posted by: dearieme at December 28, 2009 01:24 PM

Yeah, I really want to read that. Thanks for the report!

Posted by: language hat at December 28, 2009 01:32 PM

absolutely salivating with envy about the two last entries - Zubok's and Chukovsky's diaries. I've read Sheila Fitzpatrick's review of Zubok's book and Chukovsky is the key figure in Russia's 20th century anglophilia.

But I'm happy with my own new Christmas discovery - Susan Richards' 'Epics of Everyday Life. Encounters in a changing Russia', an amazing book.

Posted by: Sashura at December 28, 2009 02:59 PM

I've got it, and it is indeed amazing! When I got it I was hungry for information about Venedikt Yerofeev, whom I had just discovered, and it had wonderful descriptions of him and his situation. (I do wish it had an index so you could find things more easily.) Now I want to reread it...

Posted by: language hat at December 28, 2009 08:26 PM

Zubok’s book is really great and uniquely illuminating. I’m looking forward with great interest to your report on it.

Posted by: Studiolum at December 29, 2009 01:26 AM

Believe me, Jamessal & I get our money's worth during a year of languagehat. We wish we could pay all our bills with books of our own choosing. Who would get Strunk & White, I wonder?

Posted by: A. J. P. "Don" Pacifico at December 29, 2009 05:58 AM

Hear, hear!

Posted by: jamessal at December 29, 2009 06:24 AM