From Paris to Millheim, Pennsylvania: Save that Book

In Paris, you may discover Circul'Livre in the 9th Arr.

via Paris tourism

via Paris Tourism

In Millheim, you  may discover the IngleBean Coffee House book exchange.

via WPSU

via WPSU

All over we are struggling to keep books in our hands.  

This last week I was able to find a posthumously printed copy of Heinrich Bøll's early novel,  Der Engel schwieg (The Silent Angel), banned in Germany on its early publication in the 1950s.

QoR: Golden's upcoming watercolour paints

I was having some trouble with a medium I was using and gave Golden a call to discuss it, and in the process brought up the upcoming QoR watercolour Cathy Johnson is test driving.

They kindly sent me three dot blocks and they seem wonderful.   Simmering colour, transparent and quick drying.

I believe they'll be on the market and in stores in just a week or more.

I also talked to a "real" artist, and she talked them up after testing them herself.

What summer fun to have a new product to use.

Should we separate the writers politics from his authorship?

Some write testimonials, but one voice I read this week was an indictment against Gabriel García Márquez.

I remember struggling with that issue when one of my favourite authors was identified as a Quisling.  It was years ago.  I was reading through the Nobels, and when I came to 1920, I read on and on until I read all his work.

His name:  Knut Hamsun.

Knut Hamsun via Wiki

To my mind, his body of work was towering and the award just.

I remember hesitating when I learned of his political beliefs, the same way I've hesitated when learning other writers had checkered pasts. 

But I don't regret reading Hamsun's body of work.  It was brilliant. 

I now feel that way about Marquez.   His "Solitude" was absolutely mesmerizing and the award he received and the accolades bestowed on him for his writing is not diminished by this piece by Charles Lane speaking of his relationship to Castro.

I have no love or hate for Castro.  I had no admiration for a man who qualified as pro-Fascist, but the two men wrote well, engaged their readers, wrote about subjects unrelated to their politics and got my full attention.

Last Tango in Amsterdam

The movie theatres in Amsterdam differed from those in the United States.   You paid for your seat, and your seat was more or less expensive depending on how "far back" you sat.

I don't remember who I went with. I don't remember the film.  I know it had subtitles.

And now all these years later, I watched it on the computer.   The disk was somewhat damaged.

Schneider & Brando 1972

Schneider & Brando 1972

Schneider & Brando 1972

Both lead actors have passed away.  They remained friends throughout their respective lives.

The film was controversial then.   Would it be today?

What was Bernardo Bertolucci's intentions?   Both Brando & Schneider had very little good to say about their roles after the film was completed.   They said, "we were exploited."