Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Ernest Hemingway

March 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, I feel like I am back into the reading groove. Work is, well, just as busy, but less chaotic, and therefore I have the mental energy necessary to focus on quiet things like reading. That is not to say that I am reading quiet books.

I am very happy with my book interactions this month. The five books which arrived are a mind-blowing mix. And the reading was a genuine delight.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of March, 2025.

  1. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures (Grand River Poetry Collective) [2025.03.14] – Received as a gift from the Grand River Poetry Collective
  2. LeRoi Jones, Home: Social Essays [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  3. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  4. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar [2025.03.24] – Purchased from City Lights Books
  5. Jean Baudrillard (Sheila Faria Glaser, translator), Simulacra and Simulation (University of Michigan Press) [2025.03.28] – Purchased from the publisher

Reading List

Books I finished reading in March 2025.

Books

  1. Barney Rosset, Dick Seaver, Fred Jordan, Mike Topp (editors), The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2025.03.16]
  3. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures [2025.03.16]
  4. Maria Judite de Carvalho (Margaret Jull Costa, translator), Empty Wardrobes [2025.03.21]

Short Prose

  1. LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “Cuba Libre”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  2. Kenneth Koch, “Bertha”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  3. Arrabel (James Hewitt, translator), “Picnic on the Battlefield”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  4. Robert Stromberg, “A Talk with Louis-Ferdinand Céline”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  5. Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, “How to Proceed in the Arts”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  6. William S. Burroughs, “from Naked Lunch“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  7. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Carla Colter and Alison Scott, translators), “The Tunnel”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  8. Ahmed Yacoubi (Paul Bowles and Mohammed Larbi Djilali, translators), “The Night Before Thinking”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  9. Brendan Behan, “The Big House”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.05]
  10. Heinreich Böll (Richard and Clara Winston, translators), “In This Country of Ours”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  11. Günter Grass (Ralph Manheim, translator), “The Wide Skirt”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  12. Samuel Beckett (Richard Seaver, translator), “The Expelled”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.08]
  13. Robert Coover, “The Square-Shooter and the Saint”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  14. Robert Gover, “from One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  15. Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (Paul Bowles, translator), “from A Life Full of Holes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  16. Jakov Lind (Ralph Manheim, translator), “Resurrection”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  17. Sławomir Mrożek (Konrad Syrop, translator), “Three Polish Tales”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  18. Pauline Réage (Sabine d’Estrée, translator), “from Story of O“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  19. Richard Brautigan, “from Trout Fishing in America“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  20. Hubert Selby, Jr., “from Last Exit to Brooklyn“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.11]
  21. Georges Bataille (Austryn Wainhouse, translator), “Madame Edwarda”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  22. Michael Rumaker, “Gringos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  23. Witold Gombrowicz (Richard Seaver, translator), “On the Back Stair”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  24. Chester Himes, “from Pinktoes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  25. Kenzaburō Ōe (John Nathan, translator), “Lavish Are the Dead”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  26. Henry Miller, “George Grosz’ Ecce Homo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  27. Curzio Malaparte (Rex Benedict, translator), “Mamma Marcia”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]

April 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

April was National Poetry Month, and I didn’t read as much poetry this time as I have in past years. Part of that was my specific choices for poetry books, and part was general business and mental exhaustion. As you can see from the list below, I have spent most of my reading time buried in All that is Evident is Suspect, a collection of writing from members of Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or “Workshop for Potential Literature”). The writing therein is frying my brain in the very best way. Highly recommended.

Acquisitions

Books I acquired in the month of April 2024

  1. Lauren T. Davila (editor), To Root Somewhere Beautiful: An Anthology of Reclamation (Outland Entertainment) [2024.04.10] – Purchased through a Kickstarter campaign run by Outland Entertainment.
  2. Frantz Fanon (Richard Philcox, translator), The Wretched of the Earth [2024.04.20] – Purchased from a fantastic new store which opened the weekend of 4/20: Black Dog Books and Records. I see myself shopping there a lot.

Reading List

Books and other material I read in April 2024

Books and Journals

  1. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast [2024.04.07]
  2. Paul Celan (John Felstiner, translator), Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan [2024.04.12]
  3. Kirk Jones, Aetherchrist [2024.04.16]
  4. Jean Daive (Norma Cole, translator), A Woman With Several Lives [2024.04.18]

Short Prose

  1. Raymond Queneau, “Slept Cried”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo 1963 – 2018 [2024.04.18]
  2. Jacques Duchateau, “Lecture on the Oulipo at Cerisy-la-Salle”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.19]
  3. Latis, “The Atheist Organist”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.20]
  4. Marcel Duchamp, “Correspondence With the Oulipo”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.20]
  5. Albert-Marie Schmidt, “Letter to the Oulipo”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.21]
  6. Claude Berge, “Letter to Jacques Roubaud & Georges Perec”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.21]
  7. François Le Lionnais, “Idea Box”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.21]
  8. Jean Lescure, “The N+7 Method”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.21]
  9. Georges Perec, “Alphabet for Stämpfli”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.22]
  10. Italo Calvino, “How I Wrote One of My Books”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.22]
  11. Luc Étienne, “Bilingual Palindromes”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.22]
  12. Stanley Chapman, “Letter to Valérie Guidoux”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.23]
  13. André Blavier, “Literary Lunatics”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.23]
  14. Jean Queval, “Circular Reflections from an Immobile Insect”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.24]
  15. Michèle Métail, “Fifty Oscillatory Poems”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.25]
  16. Marcel Bénabou, “Ebony Cup and Ivory Ball, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.25]
  17. Jacques Bens, “How to Tell a Story”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.25]
  18. Paul Braffort, “Invisible Libraries”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.26]
  19. Noël Arnaud, “The Last Minutes”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.26]
  20. Michelle Grangaud, “Gesture”, All That Is Evident Is Suspect [2024.04.26]

Weekly Round-up, April 6, 2024

John Winkelman

A view West, overlooking a section of the Skywalk in Grand Rapids, Michigan

[I took this photo when walking to the gym from work. One of the buildings attached to the Skywalk has a stairwell with windows facing west. The Skywalk connects to the building I work in, and runs from DeVos Place to the Van Andel Arena.]

It’s been another crazy week for work, leaving little time of brain space for creative endeavors. SO of course I have added a new creative endeavor to my schedule, explained under the Writing heading below.

Reading

I started the month reading The Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan, but almost immediately became distracted by Ernest Hemingways’s A Moveable Feast. So I am bouncing back and forth between the two.

Writing

I started a new daily (-ish) writing exercise based on the weekly writing prompts: Each day, as part of my journaling, I jot down a story idea or fragment from the prompt. It can be a single sentence or the entire story. The prompt generator is just too damn useful and fun for me to not keep it central to my writing practice. If I come up with anything worth sharing I will post it here.

This Week’s Writing Prompt

Subject: Revenge, Evolution
Setting: Outpost
Genre: Magic Realism

Listening

Being a programmer, I often listen to music when I work. And when working I need music that is both interesting and not distracting So I listen to instrumental music, or music with minimal lyrics, or non-English-speaking singers. St Germain performs house-flavored nu jazz, which fits my requirements perfectly.

Interesting Links