Books of interest for those interested in literature studies who are well read or wish to be better acquainted with the literary universe:

1. Alberto Manguel’s “A History of Reading”, published by Knopf of New York in 1996 in hardcover (Inventory # 42861). It contains a treasury of anecdotes, stories and knowledge explaining what it might mean to be a reader and a lover of books. We are transported from Ancient Rome to medieval France, from great British and Persian Libraries, to book thievery and book burning, to the inventions of printing and eyeglasses, finally to hyper-texting in the computer age and modern reading habits. The Argentine author explores whether readers affect the books they read as much as the other way around, and if so then how. I can attest, for myself, that I have had certain books alter my perceptions of life….and therefore my life! If you wish to know which ones, and how, please come into our bookstore and we can chat.
2. “Fiction In Several Languages” edited by Henri Peyre, from the Daedalus Library Volume #9 in vg+ 8vo hb, published by Houghton Mifflin of Boston in 1968. (Inventory # 48585) A series of essays written by literature students from many different countries explore how the novel mirrors the deepest concerns of individuals and nations. The nations explored here are in Arabia, Brazil, the Philippines, Japan, Israel, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Greece. The essayists which to demonstrate that novels not only express the uniqueness of each culture but also contain universal features common to all people’s.
3. The third in our selection is Inventory # 55312 “The Transformation of Sin” by Patrick Grant, sub-headed as ‘Studies in Donne, Herbert, Vaughan and Traherne’ in 8vo hardcover, in Vg+ condition, first edition, published by McGill-Queens University Press in 1974. Four great British authors and poets are examined in terms of the spiritual and intellectual temperment or what Grant calls the “shifting firmament of values” bestirring 17th century England. The search for a new spiritual model is on…a model essentially we still are affected by to this day in the world of words and thought.
4. Last but not least: Donald Keene’s “World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600 – 1867″. (Inventory # 37998), published in New York by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1976 in very good condition. This is the first volume in a projected four-volume study covering that period in Japanese history when literature reached a broader public than it had in the past when the only access to literature was by the aristocratic elites. A work of considerable scholarship on the drama, poetry and fiction of Japan before any significant westernization occurred.

Up-Coming: Nigerian author Ben Okri on stories, creativity and the imagination.

Bye for now, Richard on staff.