November 10, 2026
These are the audiobook regulars ..... #s 4 & 5 shall be continued with Samuel Richardson's Clarissa a lush 3 volumes from Naxos, which I predict to be gotten through by the end of December, and at the end of December also Gaddis' JR.
1. Edward Gibbon -- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- to be completed by March 20 with the booming voice of Charlton Griffin ... but what if I try to complete this by the end of January??!!
2. Cicero -- On Duties -- to be completed November 16, followed by more Cicero in this position of the all, which will be perhaps On Moral Ends, then the next would be Tusculun Disputations, and then On the Nature of the Gods, at which point On Duties etc, in a loop until the person who is typing this reaches his penultimate day on earth.
3. Seneca -- The Moral Epistles -- after this there is a Penguin Classics edition of Epictetus that will be going back and forth with Seneca, and I might also get the Naxos recording of Aurelius's Meditations with a monthly credit to then cover the 3 main Roman Stoics in the audiobook format where it's actually a human being doing the reading, and then when they are all with Cicero is on the 6th loop I will then be reading from the best English translation versions of all 3 but as I understand it all the best for Cicero were the audiobook ones, so i'd be reading the exact same sources for Cicero before I even think of reading Cicero's speeches, which if I ever get there i'd also be ready for reading the best English versions of Demosthenes, which will require better talents than I presently have, lots of room to grow.
4. The Complete Essays of Montaigne -- my next recording for the 10th here will begin at the beginning, and Montaigne is a Loop all to himself, but he may wanna go on a sabbatical after the 3rd or 4th run through, the TOC on this is the only thing bad about it, so while recording this when I hear a new essay beginning i'll know only then whether to stop there for keep on if the psyche just needs more of this calming and soothing manner of looking at things from the Renaissance.
5. Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables --- I think of how Leaf X Leaf said about beginning a big book, let it consume you, take up a lot of time with it, that is the mindset that will get me to finish this 65 hour audiobook by the end of November.
6. William Gaddis -- The Recognitions -- also to be concluded by the end of November, but this is half the length of Les Miz.
7. Tori Amos -- Resistance -- this is something I tend to avoid these last few months because it's like opening a wound, but it's all the more so important for that reason, this is so much more than a celebrity memoir.
8. 7 Cioran books -- A Short History of Decay - All Gall is Divided - The Temptation to Exist - History and Utopia - The Trouble With Being Born - Drawn and Quartered - Anathemas and Admirations -- the Cioran Loop is for me like hearing a spacey version of Spiegel im spiegel while looking around in outer space, always remembering what it was like on that planet of origin, thinking in these books can be like feeling the loss of what used to be a nostalgic philosophy.
9. James Boswell -- The Life of Samuel Johnson -- ever just wish you could while away a regular hour per day to the 1700s? This is the thing for that, as well as Clarissa for different reasons, but around the same time period.
10. Robert Burton -- The Anatomy of Melancholy -- with Peter Wickham narrating, leaving out all the non-english stuff, which a review complains of, but i'm grateful it's just got the English in this book, for there is LOTS of Latin and other languages in there as Mr. Burton LOVED quoting ancient sources. Samuel Johnson used to begin each day with this book.
11. Marcel Proust -- yes, my next vocaroo after a sleep shall begin a long long journey with the smoothest stream of consciousness writer there ever was. Once I complete what I hope to be just the first of a few times around the Proustian joint I shall with my own voice attempt to read -- 1) Clarice Lispector all of her novels, short stories, Cronicas (which I have an audiobook for!!) 2) Robert Walser's short stories, and his translator's biography of him Susan Bernofsky.
12. Lastly of the things I shall be recording a portion of each day will be my own reading of Joseph Frank's 5 volume biography of Dostoevsky, along with a David Foster Wallace essay on it, and the complete audiobook of his works which like most things with the word complete in it is not really complete. When that is completed I will read myself the Vintage International editions with all the Introductory and footnote material for the principal works those editions cover.
The space below this shall appear in about 24 hrs from when this is initially posted the Playlist for November 10, each day will have a Playlist that you would think is just gonna be music, but think again, there may be some educational things too!! And they'll all be videos that a person in my time zone can at least view on a SW page.
Each day has to have over 600 minutes recorded. ©SmartyPantsInc
1. Edward Gibbon -- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- to be completed by March 20 with the booming voice of Charlton Griffin ... but what if I try to complete this by the end of January??!!
2. Cicero -- On Duties -- to be completed November 16, followed by more Cicero in this position of the all, which will be perhaps On Moral Ends, then the next would be Tusculun Disputations, and then On the Nature of the Gods, at which point On Duties etc, in a loop until the person who is typing this reaches his penultimate day on earth.
3. Seneca -- The Moral Epistles -- after this there is a Penguin Classics edition of Epictetus that will be going back and forth with Seneca, and I might also get the Naxos recording of Aurelius's Meditations with a monthly credit to then cover the 3 main Roman Stoics in the audiobook format where it's actually a human being doing the reading, and then when they are all with Cicero is on the 6th loop I will then be reading from the best English translation versions of all 3 but as I understand it all the best for Cicero were the audiobook ones, so i'd be reading the exact same sources for Cicero before I even think of reading Cicero's speeches, which if I ever get there i'd also be ready for reading the best English versions of Demosthenes, which will require better talents than I presently have, lots of room to grow.
4. The Complete Essays of Montaigne -- my next recording for the 10th here will begin at the beginning, and Montaigne is a Loop all to himself, but he may wanna go on a sabbatical after the 3rd or 4th run through, the TOC on this is the only thing bad about it, so while recording this when I hear a new essay beginning i'll know only then whether to stop there for keep on if the psyche just needs more of this calming and soothing manner of looking at things from the Renaissance.
5. Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables --- I think of how Leaf X Leaf said about beginning a big book, let it consume you, take up a lot of time with it, that is the mindset that will get me to finish this 65 hour audiobook by the end of November.
6. William Gaddis -- The Recognitions -- also to be concluded by the end of November, but this is half the length of Les Miz.
7. Tori Amos -- Resistance -- this is something I tend to avoid these last few months because it's like opening a wound, but it's all the more so important for that reason, this is so much more than a celebrity memoir.
8. 7 Cioran books -- A Short History of Decay - All Gall is Divided - The Temptation to Exist - History and Utopia - The Trouble With Being Born - Drawn and Quartered - Anathemas and Admirations -- the Cioran Loop is for me like hearing a spacey version of Spiegel im spiegel while looking around in outer space, always remembering what it was like on that planet of origin, thinking in these books can be like feeling the loss of what used to be a nostalgic philosophy.
9. James Boswell -- The Life of Samuel Johnson -- ever just wish you could while away a regular hour per day to the 1700s? This is the thing for that, as well as Clarissa for different reasons, but around the same time period.
10. Robert Burton -- The Anatomy of Melancholy -- with Peter Wickham narrating, leaving out all the non-english stuff, which a review complains of, but i'm grateful it's just got the English in this book, for there is LOTS of Latin and other languages in there as Mr. Burton LOVED quoting ancient sources. Samuel Johnson used to begin each day with this book.
11. Marcel Proust -- yes, my next vocaroo after a sleep shall begin a long long journey with the smoothest stream of consciousness writer there ever was. Once I complete what I hope to be just the first of a few times around the Proustian joint I shall with my own voice attempt to read -- 1) Clarice Lispector all of her novels, short stories, Cronicas (which I have an audiobook for!!) 2) Robert Walser's short stories, and his translator's biography of him Susan Bernofsky.
12. Lastly of the things I shall be recording a portion of each day will be my own reading of Joseph Frank's 5 volume biography of Dostoevsky, along with a David Foster Wallace essay on it, and the complete audiobook of his works which like most things with the word complete in it is not really complete. When that is completed I will read myself the Vintage International editions with all the Introductory and footnote material for the principal works those editions cover.
The space below this shall appear in about 24 hrs from when this is initially posted the Playlist for November 10, each day will have a Playlist that you would think is just gonna be music, but think again, there may be some educational things too!! And they'll all be videos that a person in my time zone can at least view on a SW page.
Each day has to have over 600 minutes recorded. ©SmartyPantsInc
46-50, M