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Fantastic, a book that reconciles me with 19th century novels and criticism. Very critical of University life and research in humanities, particularly of biographical criticism.

Extremely disappointing; a book that wants to be clever, and which only became famous, I think, because a journalist thought that it "spoke for a generation". Bleh. Characters who live boring and pointless lives, in a boring and pointless book.

I liked Things Fall Apart so I hope I will also like this one.

I read this book a very long time ago, when either my English or myself (or both) weren't mature enough to digest it. When I read it again it will feel new.

I have only read 25 pages out of 175 or so, but I have already decided this is definitely a give-away book. Not just because I rarely re-read mysteries, but because the writing is a bit dry and monotonous. There are loads of sex, described with an amount of detail that sounds like a scientific dissection. In spite of all this, it's entertaining.

**

I've finished the book. The second half is a lot less interesting than the first one. This may be so because I already knew what was going to happen, as I had seen the movie before. But just as I had been thrilled to watch what happened to Meg Ryan and her friend onscreen, I couldn't care less about the comings and goings of this protagonist. Her feelings are not believable and her erudition is just out of place.

After reading 84 Charing Cross Road, I didn't exactly want more in the same style: I wanted to know more about the characters. So, I bought all the books by Helene Hanff published after it. It fits that after publishing a collection of letters, instead of a more conventional memoir or travelogue she writes a book in diary format; nevertheless, the style is too hurried, not detailed enough, and not funny enough. The book is occasionally good, but I wish she had used her diary as a source for a more organised and better written work.

This is definitely much better than The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. It is just as light, but it is composed in the form of an autobiography, with proper chapters, so it seems better planned than any of her other books.

This rule is not valid for an individual because it is concerned with the management of a monastery. Even so, there are lessons for everyone. It's good as a History book, it's good for Sociology or Anthropology, and for Christians, it can have a double use: letting us see what goes on inside a comtemplative community, and giving us life lessons. The language is simple but descriptive enough.

I love one of the early chapters, which says "always ask God to help you finish what you start". So, it acknowledges the creative impulse and the goodness in people, while God is necessary to help us along so that the initial "push" is kept all along. Very positive for the 6th century, isn't it?

Becquer is evil, end of story. Other countries, in the Romantic lottery, got proper writers, like Keats. Spain was stuck with this guy, who gave poetry a bad name with his easy rhymes and sentimentality. I would ban him from schools.