A collection of Bulgarian tales. I've only had a few, but I'm very pleasantly surprised at Aleko Konstantinov's creation Bay Ganyo. Ganyo is the representation of the new Bulgaria: merchant of precious rose oil abroad, filthy, vulgar, completely unable to adapt to the country he's in, and calling the other cultures "crazy". I'm trying to find an English version on-line, but for now here's Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Ganyo

and a joke:

Bay Ganyo, an American and a Frenchman were flying on a plane. The American stuck his hand out of the plane and said, "We're in America."

"How can you tell?" the others asked.

"I just touched the Statue of Liberty."

After a while the Frenchman stuck his hand out and said, "We're in France."

"How do you know?"

"I just touched the Eiffel Tower," he answered.

Finally Bay Ganyo stuck his hand out and said, "We're in Bulgaria."

The others asked him how he knew.

"They stole my watch," he replied.

Don't get it. Mind you, never heard of Bay Ganyo.

Currently reading Witches of Eastwick by John Updike. Not sure what to make of it. I don't read too many American authors and John Updike isn't going to change that.

Reading Boccacio's Decameron. Will take a while.
What a book!

So Bonny, I'd forgotten about that. Are you ever going to tell me who Bay Ganyo is?

Bay Ganyo is the lead character of the series of stories by the same name, written by Aleko Konstantinov. He's a rose-oil merchant and travels Europe, where his totally a-social, ignorant and egotistic behaviour raises everybody's eyebrows.
Bay Ganyo is a cult hero in Bulgaria. The four tales I read about him, make me hungry for more, but unfortunately finding a translation is hard. Of course the entire text is on-line, but in Bulgarian only.

Thanks Bonny. I have to say I more than half got the joke when I first read it, but the fact that it was someone's name, rather just any Bulgarian, I thought I might be missing some subtlety, but it turns out not.

I'm close to the end of Bonfire of the Vanities and it's amazing how we repeat the same mistakes every 15-30 years or so.Especially the money markets of Wall St.! Banks are never too big to fail,IMHO and this as Chase is losing 2 billion on the same investitures that got us in trouble 4 yrs. ago! Basically betting investers money on futures that aren't there.Only projected futures! It makes me want to scream!!! At least bet it on a horse that can finish! The CEO's excuse? Well it worked before....why they outta through away the keys,with that one, I tell ya!!

I'm on a Hesse-trip, just finished Demian and am onto Narziss und Goldmund, and find it hard to put down. No wonder Kafka was a fan of his!

I really like Herman Hesse. My favorite was Magister Ludi. But I feel like I've talked to Bonny about this.
When I was a teenager I read the Foundation trilogy of Isaac Asimov. A future world where 'pychohistorians' can statistically predict the future of humanity, within probabilities. They've developed it into a science and worked out how to steer humanity in the 'right' direction, with constant support. If only. The idealism of such a notion meshes in pretty ways with the glass bead game of Magister Ludi. So in a way it makes sense I would like that. Also read Hesse when I needed beautiful ideas to get me through the day. It worked!

Am reading that one now. Really!

I had a brief Hesse period sometime in my twenties. I read Steppenwolf and was very much inspired by it, then I read Knulp and that was a bit ordinary and then I tried to read The Glass Bead Game but I found it a bit laboured and got bored. Personally, Steppenwolf was enough for me.

Ah, so no Demian for you then? I'm impressed by his psycho-analystic building of his lead characters. Good characters are important to me, the biggest flaw of Lord Of The Rings is the underdeveloped Frodo.
But he's a bit Jungian, which does annoy me slightly.

It's a lot harder to get into the Glass Bead Game than into Demian, Narziss und Goldmund or even Steppenwolf, that's for sure. But I'll get there, currently Knecht has found a friend in the monastery.

in the version I had there are a few short stories at the end, purportedly written by Knecht when he was young that show his interests at that age. Whether they are early stories of Hesse lumped in or crafted specifically for this book - they add more to the character at that age. One seems like Demian, another,the young Gautama - they could easily work as early drafts of those books. Anyway, it's one of those books of just a few that inspired me and also made me feel less alone in this world. The knowledge that there were people out there who wanted to look at complex things in clearer if abstract ways was liberating.

Just finished reading the play Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Nice!

Last night I finished reading The Three Musketeers. It's interesting how it relates to the two films I've seen: it still has a decent amount in common with the 1948 TM with Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan, and barely anything with the 1993 one with Chris O'Donnell.

[Edited on 14-9-12 by BBP]

Finished my fifth Hesse: The Prodigy. :crying:

Hasse Simonsdochter put me on a Thea Beckman-trip again, been re-reading some of her novels. I just finished her historical novel Geef me de ruimte! which takes place in France during the 100 Years War. One chapter is devoted to Amiens during the Plague. Though Beckman does tone down violence a bit, the sections about the Plague and about the attempted betrayal of Jean II are nauseating, to say the least.

Let's see... on Thursday I got through Murakami's latest in one day (and the only reason I had the confidence to buy a 20 dollar book by an unknown author was that there were at least two people on the FZ forum saying how good he was in the book topic).

And I just finished the second book of Beckman's trilogy on the 100 Year War: Triomf van de verschroeide aarde. Deals with, among others, revolution in Paris and the sieges of Rennes and Reims.

Thinking about "favorite authors" I recently dusted off two books by the "longshoreman/dockworker/migrant/migrant worker, Social Philosopher, Eric Hoffer! He has an astonishing background who went through six years of blindness (ages 6 through 12
) with an unexplained, slightly gradual, return of eyesight during which time he developed an insatiable craving for the written word while learning to read.
He was prodded by a faithful correspondent finally to write a book, far from anything he had intended. His first, and in my opinion, *best* books were his first two: "The True Believer (Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements)" and "The Ordeal of Change." By chance I picked them up at age 16 and Mr. Hoffer became an idol of mine and that's remained unchanged to this very day.
No, I have never had any so-called "heroes" at all, only people I admire by which I use the term "idol", just as I consider Frank Zappa an "idol". No one deserves the stature of "hero" as we are all largely full of holes and emptiness with those obvious exceptions who are unexplainably gifted with an unusual *substance*. Some are well-known, others are personal, but they all share in possessing *substance*.