While Away From The Internet......Part Two

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been neglecting my reading and I thought that now - when I'm without Internet - would be a good opportunity to catch up.

Earlier in the year, I did manage to read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. I enjoyed the novel so much that I downloaded several of his books from Project Gutenberg, with an idea to read them this year. My plan was to begin with his four part series, Parade's End the first part being Some Do Not...... However, when I began reading the first novel, I didn't really want to begin another novel in which adultery plays such a central part of the plot. Adultery is the focus of The Good Soldier and I wanted to find another subject.

After rereading Master and Margarita I attempted to pick up Some Do Not..... once again, but I couldn't relate to the pre-World War I morality of Britain.

Not wanting to neglect my reading once more, I began reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was a quick read and I wish I had read the book when I was younger; perhaps it might have led me in a different direction.

I have a folder on my pc desktop labeled "books for 2016" which, obviously contains e-books I had intended on reading last year, but had failed to do so. I uploaded two of those e-books to my Kindle yesterday - Stories From a Chinese Studio - Vols. 1 & 2 by Songling Pu and The Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig.

I've already begun reading the Songling Pu collection. Written about 1679, the work I have was translated by Herbert A. Giles and published in 1880.

The table of contents given in the e-book is a bit odd. The first story in the collection is "EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF GUARDIAN ANGEL" followed by "THE TALKING PUPILS". The table of contents lists the stories alphabetically, the first story given is "ADULTERATION PUNISHED" which is in Volume 2......64% of the way in. Not sure why it's that way, but it strikes me as a peculiar way of arranging the stories.