April reads and May possibilities

Ajouté : 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hi, we're Quinc Curious Volumes. My name is James. I wanted to come on here and tell you a little bit about what I read in the month of April and what I plan to read in the month of May.

[00:00:11]Now, when I looked at the list of books I finished in April, it was uh it's pitiful, pretty pitiful to be honest.

[00:00:18]Um, but let me tell let me tell you about them. Uh, so first was The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton. I think I started that may have started that in late March. That was my uh first quarter histoathon uh selection uh study of uh Greece during the classical era, the golden age, Pericle and Athens in particular and um kind of compares uh what she calls the Greek way to other things like the modern way, the Eastern way um and u does this through largely through the lens of little individual chapters on the famous uh people of uh of classical Greece. So a chapter on Plato and on Aristophanes, Uripides uh Thusidities uh and and so on. Um really um you it helps to have some experience of Greek drama and philosophy. I I think if you knew like had no grounding in any of this, it wouldn't be a great introduction to Greece, but uh if you've had if you have a little bit of familiarity if you are maybe not well read, but moderately read, you will probably get something out of it. Uh that's I consider myself not well read in uh ancient Greek literature in translation. Uh but moderately read, more than more than average, let's say. Anyway, um then I read for the Lonear Book Club News of the World by Pette Giles. I think I've talked about this on this channel already. Um, this is a relatively short book uh that is uh about it's a historical novel about a veteran in the post civil war uh post civil war Texas who uh is tasked with delivering a young girl. She's about 10 I believe. Uh and she had been at an early much earlier age captured by the Kyoa um Indians um and raised as a Kyoa um from the age of like 3 till 10 roughly. I'm not exactly remembering it exactly but he's uh she's been recovered from the Kyoa and he it is his task to deliver her to her uh her family. Now, her parents have been killed. Um, but her aunt and uncle still live in uh south south Texas. So, this starts up near the uh the border of well what we now call Oklahoma. So, like on the on the river and uh he has to transport her all the way down to the south. They have various adventures. Um some people try to kidnap her again from him. Uh it's uh it's not exactly an exciting story. does have exciting passages. It's a really beautifully written book and um and I recommend you give it a try if you're if you're into historical fiction and you you you're looking for a relatively short his work of historical fiction.

[00:03:38]Um I also finished The Stronghold by Dino Busati. Um, now this, uh, was part of my year-long plan to read an NYR booty book every month, at least one, because I've accumulated a bunch of them that I haven't read. So, um, and, uh, this book was published under a different name by a different translator years ago. It was it was is better known by the title The Tarter Step. Uh but this is a recent uh translation by uh Lawrence Venui.

[00:04:14]Uh Dino Buzzi was a Italian novelist. I think he also was a he was a journalist and uh a poet and a a visual artist as well.

[00:04:29]You'll always you almost always you'll see him compared to Kafka to uh Italo Calvino and to Jorge Luis Bourhees. Now you probably already have some sense of the kind of kind of writing this is uh and an idea of whether or not you're interested in it. Uh I did not like this as much as I've liked the works of any of those other writers. Not that I've read everything by them, but uh in short, this is a it starts off with a young man who has just graduated from military academy. He's going to his first assignment, which is a fortress on the uh northern border of the kingdom where he lives. Everyone has an Italian name, but it's not expressly Italy.

[00:05:19]And also the northern border of this kingdom is on the edge of a great desert uh where the the enemies are tarters. Um in other words, sort of a uh central Asian horse horsemen, right? Uh I think perhaps of of uh Genghaskhan's uh Mongols, something like that. And obviously northern Italy does not border any such place. Um, also this fortress is within sight of the city that he's leaving from. Like he sets off to go there and they can see it almost immediately, but then it takes them two days to get there and it seems to be completely cut off from the rest of the world. Like he does go back to the city on occasion and other people do, but it doesn't seem like it's the sort of thing they do regularly. They're pretty it's considered very remote.

[00:06:13]Um, without giving too much away, not much happens in this until uh he gets older.

[00:06:20]Um, he uh gets promotions. Other people around him get promotions. Uh, the fortress that he's he never gets assigned anywhere other than this fortress. Um, but these things about his promotions, they're never remarked upon.

[00:06:34]It's just at one point he's referred to as lieutenant. At another point he's referred to as a captain, then he's referred to as a major. So, this has been going on, but it's not the thing that's discussed. It's not about his military career. It's about his life passing and about constantly expecting something to come. Um, they they spend a lot of time just sort of looking out at the horizon uh to see if there's anything coming and sometimes they think they see some black dots that might maybe possibly could be an invading army or maybe they're just sheep, right? Um, so I I suppose there's a lot of uh that will sound familiar if you've read the things like the castle or the trial. Um, there's plenty of um kind of military absurdity to it, you know, um people kind of falling victim uh to the rigidity of the military uh system.

[00:07:32]Anyway, it was it was okay. I I didn't find it as uh as exciting and moving as a lot of people uh do, but um it it it wasn't it wasn't bad. It it you know, I like all those other writers who he's compared to, especially uh Boures. Um but I I just didn't get that that kind of feeling of wonder. It's it's a little more I guess it's a you know what it is.

[00:08:02]It's a little more realistic than those guys, right? It's kind of I'm just thinking of this now. It's sort of like um the things that you have in Bourhees, you know, they're they're characters.

[00:08:15]It's obviously a fiction, right? uh this it's an absurd Kafka-esque situation that he's in, but everything is just so plain and kind of realist kind of work a day.

[00:08:33]Um so, uh it doesn't have that kind of sense of wonder, perhaps the sense of imagination. Um and maybe it's more true to life for that. Um and for that maybe I found it too boring. I don't know what to tell you. Um, so, so there you go.

[00:08:48]That's uh, uh, uh, Tom Jones. I've continued making some progress on Tom Jones. Um, I set him aside for the last couple of weeks of the month because I was, uh, I was reading the Stronghold and I was reading another chunk of the uh, the Arabian Knights, Tales of 1,000 Knights and a Night. Um, of course, this is part of the uh longest buddy read in book history, which I'm doing with Gavin of Genre Books. We did a live stream on this last weekend uh where we talked about the city of brass and um some stories involving uh vizers and a slave girl, trading stories about the profidity of men and the profidity of women. this continues to be very entertaining and a lot more fun for me uh when I talk about with Gavin. So uh you know check this book out sometime uh if you're and if you're interested uh join us uh for reading next next month's chunk which is uh let me see what do we decide to do night uh 624 to night 80. This is the story of Ajib and Garb which goes on for about 110 pages. So if you want to join us, our next chunk is going to be Ajang Garb uh that tail.

[00:10:20]So what am I doing next month? Well, I will continue to plug away at Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I'm also uh joining Randy Ray and friends for the Lonear Book Club and we're reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. I've already started this. I think I commented on it last week. Uh, this is sort of a I guess a a family saga. I don't know. So far, it's mostly taken place in a couple of days in uh in a declining former miltown in Maine, sometime in the late 20th century, I suppose.

[00:10:57]um people uh I guess it's it's kind of a bit like uh uh the um the guy in the stronghold because it's about uh the main character who whose life seems not to have uh gone the way he expected. He seems to be have been waiting for something to happen that has not happened for him. All right. It is also May which uh someone has created a a book event uh called the sound of May where we where people are going to be reading and talking about music. Uh there's a tag for it. I'm going to do that tag tomorrow. Um I don't uh I'm sorry I don't remember the guy's name.

[00:11:38]Uh I'm going to I'm going to link to you in the description. I'm very sorry. I think it's awesome that you freed this event. Uh so um anyway I'm I'm for my NYB book this month I'm reading this one. It is finding the Raga by Amit Shri and Amit Shri is a you if you know of him you probably know him as a novelist.

[00:12:02]I wrote a novel by him called the immortals several years ago. Um and that also dealt with music. it uh and in fact this is kind of a combination of a memoir and an exploration of Hindustani that is north Indian classical music and uh this author is um kind of an amateur performer of it he's a singer um he talks about how he became interested in it how he went about learning it um and what there is to know about it what there is to understand about it this is a really uh wonderfully written book um and Uh it it a lot of things in here I'm like I remember that from the immortal. So I I think that book was uh very closely based on his own life because there's a lot of a lot of uh similarities.

[00:12:52]Um and I did enjoy that book which was why I decided to give this a try. Uh yeah so I I have some experience nowhere near as as much as Amit Shri but uh some experience with Indian classical music myself. I might make a video about that later on. um for the sound of May. But uh if you're looking to for sort of a gentle introduction, I don't know if this is the best um maybe not the most comprehensive, but it is a very um thoughtful um and uh and gentle introduction to the uh the complexities of uh of North Indian classical music.

[00:13:31]Another thing I'm thinking of is um because I I love this author and I've been One of my projects this year is to catch up with his works is to read uh Ian Mchuan's lessons. Ian Mchuan, I've always loved the way he writes about music. Um it's usually not the center of any of his books, but when he has a musician character, I really like the way he does it. Um and so music is uh more central in this book. So I'm looking forward to reading this. I think this is going to be uh this is going to I was going through them kind of in order to catch up. Uh but I'm going to skip I'm going to skip machines like me and uh and do this one this month probably.

[00:14:15]Also uh you know I have a uh a list of uh classics that I wanted to read this year. One of them is Notredam de Perry or the Hunchback of Notredam. I if I can I may try and fit this in. Hey, look.

[00:14:28]Yes, I've got a big pile of books I'm supposed to be reading this month. I might at least start this one towards the end. Um because uh it's the sound of May and um it's a this is about a guy who rings bells for a living, right? I think he's deaf from ringing the bells.

[00:14:45]Uh so anyway, there you go. That's what I have. That's my pile of possibilities and uh nsibilities for the month of May.

[00:14:53]Tell me what you're reading. Tell me what you read in April. Um, I would like to know about have you read any of these? Do you like uh Hunchback of Notre Dame? Notre Dame notes for bomb. Um, okay. Uh, thanks for watching. My