Reading Log, Week 2
As Bob Pollard and Tobin Sprout sang, you gotta keep it in motion.
I stuck with Mr. Bradbury's advice and continued reading a poem, an essay, and a short story every night. I mostly stuck with the bilingual edition of Selected Poems of Bertolt Brecht for the poetry, supplemented by Adrienne Rich. For essays, since I finished Why Look at Animals, I moved on to another Berger collection, Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible. For stories, I started mixing in Ernest Hemingway's collected Nick Adam's Stories and David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
And I'm still working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin's The Farthest Shore.
Nov. 23–29
Sunday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “Das Lied von den Eisenbahntruppe von Fort Donald” (1916)
- Essay: John Berger, “Speech on Accepting the Booker Prize” (1972)
- Story: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “The Story of a Head that Fell Off” (1917)
Monday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “Ballad of the Adventurers” (1917)
- Essay: John Berger, “Past Seen from a Possible Future” (1970)
- Story: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Green Onions” (1919)
Tuesday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “In Memory of Marie A” (1920)
- Essay: John Berger, “Turner and the Barber’s Shop” (1972)
- Story: Ernest Hemingway, “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife” (1924)
Wednesday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “Vom Schwimmen in Seen und Flüssen” (1919)
- Essay: John Berger, John Berger, “The Suit and the Photograph” (1979)
- Story: David Foster Wallace, “A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life” (1999)
Thursday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “Vom ertrunkenen Mädchen” (1919)
- Essay: John Berger, John Berger, “The Eyes of Claude Monet” (1980)
- Story: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Horse Legs” (1925)
Friday:
- Poem: Bertolt Brecht, “Lied am schwarzen Samstag der elften Stunde der nach vor Osten” (1920)
- Essay: John Berger, “The Production of the World” (1983)
- Story: David Foster Wallace, “Death is Not the End” (1999)
Saturday:
- Poem: Adrienne Rich, “Well in Ruined Courtyard” (1963)
- Essay: John Berger, “Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible” (2001)
- Story: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Daidōji Shinsuke: The Early Years” (1924)
Comics: Special Alex Toth Edition!
As for comics, I went on a big Alex Toth bender, reading most in chronological order from original publication date.
- 1952: F-86 Sabre Jet (7 pages. From Frontline Combat #12, reprinted in 1995.)
- 1953: The Crushed Gardenia (8 pages. From Who is Next? #5, reprinted in Seduction of the Innocent #3, 1985.)
- 1959: Illustrations from a 1959 novelization of the TV show Maverick starring James Garner. A previous owner made a note atop a page they must have been reading when they learned that, "John Lennon was murdered Dec. 8th, 1980."
- 1965: Grave Undertaking (6 pages. From Creepy #5. Reprinted in Creepy 139 in 1982.)
- 1966: The Monument (6 pages. From Eerie #3. Reprinted in Creepy 139.)
- 1966: Rude Awakening (6 pages. From Creepy #7. Reprinted in Creepy 139)
- 1966: Survival (6 pages. From Blazing Combat #3. Reprinted in Creepy 139 (1982)
- 1975: Daddy and the Pie (8 pages. From Eerie #64. Reprinted in Creepy 139.)
- 1975: Phantom of Pleasure Island (8 pages. From Creepy #75. Reprinted in Creepy 139.)
- 1976: Unreal (6 pages, Creepy #78.)
- 1976: Kui (6 pages, Creepy #79.)
- 1977: The Vanguard (10 pages, Hot Stuf' #4.)
- 1980: The Killing (12 pages, Creepy #122, inks over Leo Duranona.)
- 1981: Circus of the Bizarre (5 pages, Creepy #125, inks over Carmine Infantino.)
- 1982: Taps (5 pages, Bop #1.)
- 1983: Oolala (12 pages, Dragon's Teeth #1.)
- 1983: The Fox (8 pages, The Black Hood #2.)
- 1983: The Most XXXXX Man in the World (12 pages, The Black Hood #3.)
I also intended to read all of Bravo for Adventure, which I have in their original printings, but only got to the intro (4 pages) and the "Dream Story" (17 pages) from Voyages #1 (1983), and haven't had a chance to read the previously published (but next in sequence per the collected edition) two stories from The Rook #1 (24 pages) and #2 (25 pages) in 1979. Soon!