i wonder how to get through the generals list this summer. even discounting what i have already read of the list (which i haven't the faintest chance of rereading before september,) there is no humanly possible way of reading everything on it in the time remaining. marge garber told rikita that the trick is to study one period a week, then move on regardless. this is tricky; at two shakespeares a day (at a trot) and say, a one day review of the key passages of paradise lost, and, say, one book of the faerie queene a day, i would have exceeded the renaissance week without once reading any of the other seven authors on it. the medieval list is going to take another week, easily. i can't possibly read pamela, tristram shandy and roxana in one week, let alone give attention to the poetry of the 18th century. and i'm quite aghast at the american list, of which i've read next to nothing, except dickinson, and even then what do you do with a list that says only "dickinson: poems" i wonder what constitutes a substantial canon of dickinson. the ones i'm most fond of are never anthologised.

but i shall also permit myself lots of movies and, if possible, fun books. i just have got to read kafka on the shore, it's been on my shelves in singapore for two years. i'll read it on the plane on the way back.

a list of movies to rent.

1. the winslow boy
2. the madness of king george (nigel hawthorne in an alan bennett, what's not to like?)
3. life and death of peter sellers
4. american friends (this is probably going to be hard to find)
5. full circle (the documentary, that is.)
6. what else?