The little white attic

1/ My summary of the second chapter of the Book of Daniel:  The king: Interpret my dream. People: What’s the dream? The king: I don’t rememb...

1/ Does anyone read the Book of Job without feeling disturbed by the cruelty and callousness of God? Why does God, for no reason, take every...

1/ The Books of Kings immediately follow the Books of Samuel: as David is old and stricken in years, his son Adonijah assumes the throne; ho...

1/ Not only did I not grow up in a (culturally) Christian country, I grew up in Vietnam, a communist and thus anti-religious country—I only ...

1/ Moby-Dick is full of symbolism. I must thank Tom of Wuthering Expectations for pointing out that Ishmael is identified with water, and ...

“Dissect him how I may, then, I but go skin deep; I know him not, and never will.” (ch.86)  It often puzzles me that lots of readers don’t s...

For a few years after I read Moby-Dick the first time, I often picked it up to reread certain chapters or passages. I stopped after a while...

Not a comforting thought to an ignorant and slow reader like me, but Tom (Wuthering Expectations) was right when he said there’s no reading ...

A Grecian vase depicting Odysseus and the Sirens (why is Odysseus naked though?).  1/ Here is something interesting Homer does in the Odyss...

What’s up with me and lists these days? I don’t know. Getting listless, I guess. But once in a while, I think it’s good to look at some list...

This is the Edith Grossman translation of Novelas ejemplares (my post on the first 4 stories ).  5/ “The Novel of the Glass Lawyer”:  Ah, a ...

I’ve been to sea with Herman Melville a few times: on a whaler ( Moby Dick ), on a man-of-war ( White-Jacket ), and now on a merchant ship. ...

- 10 favourite novels (updated):  The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu  Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy M...