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I have it and like it, but it isn't the amazing value for me as it might be for others, since I have Living Stereo sets 1 and 2. If you have both of those (or even #1), then the calculus becomes different.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the library had all 3 volumes. I bought #1, but I think I gave it up before the move. This will be a good time to revisit it, and I put the other two on hold as well.

Yes indeed, this would make a good movie, or maybe better yet, a perfect BBC-type multi-part series (and if you bend the events of the novel a little, a multi-year series, "Vicar of Dibley" style. In Mrs. Gamart, it has the perfect villain). On re-reading, it struck me how indebted Fitzgerald is to Muriel Spark: same slim narrative, same incisive characters, same implicit feminism. The big difference, to me, is that Spark is all steak knives and sharp edges, while Fitzgerald is all butter knives and round edges. Spark's heroines go for the glittering prizes, while Fitzgerald's learn resignation (albeit after a brief skirmish). At the end of the story, Florence "valued kindness above everything." Spark's women valued victory; they are more in line with Mr, Brundage's "Courage!" These are just differences, not necessarily superiorities on either side. Perhaps the Spark/Fitzgerald heroine differences spring from the differing personalities of their authors. Patently Spark did NOT value kindness above everything. I look forward with interest to reading Fitzgerald's biography; at the moment all I have to go on is her photo, which suggests a kindly woman: It's sounding like Fitzgerald (and really Pym as well, aside from a few "pushy" female characters) is more aligned with Austen, whereas Spark's characters are more descended from Becky Sharp. I read most of Molly Keane's novels and she is all over the map. Many younger female characters are accommodating, though some are slyer than others in getting what they want, whereas the female heads of household are usually pretty monstrous and full-bore egoists. There are some that break from this pattern, and I believe in Good Behaviour it is one of the younger or middle-aged women who is a bit of a monster. (I only got a few pages in before having to set this aside -- I should be returning to it at the end of Jan. to finish up.)

I think I'll just stick with Old Wives' Tale for now, but perhaps some day... At any rate, it was a U Michigan professor* who still was championing Bennett in the 90s, so he still has some defenders. I'm sure the wheel will turn again, and Bennett will be back in fashion. OTOH, long fiction in general is not in fashion, and it might take a while before its particular pleasures are recognized. * I still feel bad that I just couldn't read this novel back when it was assigned, so I have committed to finishing it in the next couple of years. I'm almost certain I'll like it more than The Egoist, which I did manage to read.

You ask how many have read it. I have, simply because it was required reading on my English degree course in the 60s. I now recall very little of it, other than that I reached the end without a struggle - which I can't say of either Middlemarch or The Heart of Midlothian! It's somewhere on my TBR list (I think). I will say you make it sound a bit more interesting than I had imagined, so I will move it up a bit. It does sit behind a few other classics that I have skipped and am trying to get to in the next couple of years: Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale, Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (and maybe North and South) and, yes, Eliot's Middlemarch. I'm actually very close to closing out the Dostoevsky/Tolstoy/Turgenev portion of my Russian reading "seminar." I'm on Notes From Underground right now and later in the week I get to Tsypkin's Summer in Baden Baden. Next week will be Platonov: Soul and Happy Moscow and The Foundation Pit.

Sounds interesting. I see that all four were translated ages ago and are up on Gutenberg.org, so I'll give them a look in. It's like turning corners in an endless library, another gifted author you have never heard anything about. Simulaneously thrilling and depressing, knowing that there is no way to read all the deserving authors and their works in one lifetime. Anyhoo, I am starting to explore Theodor Fontane, another author whom I was almost completely unaware of just a few months ago.

I did read Hotel Savoy in 2014. It's definitely interesting. Rounding out my top 5 read in 2014 are Iris Murdoch's Under the Net and Michel Tremblay The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant. Honorable mentions go to: Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason, The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy and Rebellion by Joseph Roth (again).

I know people can get worked up over just about anything, and this is no exception. Some people feel it is disrespectful to medical doctors that Ph.D.s also get the title. I think Ph.D.s do deserve the title, though one is a prat if one insists on it in non-academic settings. I have very mixed feelings about honorary doctorates, however. I really don't think they should be called Dr. no matter how much they busted their ass in "the school of life," but maybe that's just me.

It's pretty rare for me to read a book in the year it comes out, but The Girl Who Was Saturday Night was published earlier in the year. It's good, but nowhere in my top 10 for the year. Probably the best book I read for the first time was Dostoevsky's Demons, followed by Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia Trilogy, while the best I reread was Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. I'll have to go back through my reading list to see what else I tackled. The main things were novels by Molly Keane and Barbara Comyns and finally making it through Proust. I also liked Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth quite a bit (it would be in top 5), but I can't recall if I read this in 2013 or 2014.

That's interesting. I enjoyed Cloud Atlas, but I just see Bone Clocks as too much of the same again. I don't plan on reading it.

As far as Herzen goes, he was quite important in pushing for liberal reform and published a newsletter/magazine that was quite influential (though of course banned) in Russia. He may well have helped bring about the Tsar abolishing serfdom on an earlier schedule than he would have otherwise. In later years, particularly after 1848, Herzen became far more skeptical of sweeping political movements and he definitively rejected communism. He hoped for countries to arrive at socialism through a democratic process (perhaps not too different from Orwell's stance several decades later). Turgenev, for his part, thought this just a fantasy that would never come to pass, and he thought Herzen totally romanticized the Russian peasants. I thought his autobiography was pretty interesting, though I just don't see where or why Isaiah Berlin keeps calling it a masterpiece on par with War and Peace. I wrapped up Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia trilogy on these figures (primarily Bakunin, Herzen and Turgenev) and really enjoyed it. I had the privilege of seeing it on stage in Berkeley, but I think I'd go again if another company decided to tackle it. I'll probably blog about this next week. I'm about halfway through a recent Canadian novel -- The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill. It's sort of a mirror into a lower class neighbourhood populated by artistic types. The setting is not dissimilar to the ones Barbara Comyns wrote about or Tess Slesinger's The Unpossessed or some of the novels set in Greenwich Village in the 70s or the Lower East Side in the 80s and very early 90s. I believe this novel is set in the very early 90s (before the 1995 Referendum) but I am not entirely sure. It's one of those novels where the characters are interesting, but I'd want to stay 100 feet away from any one of them in real life.

I agree -- that statement about no software makes absolutely no sense. I decided a while ago to pass and nothing I've heard since makes me reconsider that decision. I need to save up for the Beehive set(s) anyway.

Hmm, that's too bad, though I have Jaipur from another source -- Impressed (the Gilles Peterson compilation) -- so at worst I could piece the two together.

This is kind of embarrassing. I remember thinking that I probably ought to get the full Beecham. According to Amazon, I did buy this (the 1992 CD set -- I don't think it has been remastered since), but I doubt I have listened to it straight through. Well, something to go look for tonight, I guess.

It does seem somedays like almost anything was thrown onto vinyl back then (almost like the Youtube of its day). I'd probably listen to Skal though.

Really not sure -- perhaps the last movement of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Does that count as hedging my bets too much?

I'm really not sure, but it would perhaps be One Step Beyond and Destination Out. Though Jackie's Bag would be a strong contender too.

I'm sure a few are spoofs or art works like the one Daniel referenced. And the most disturbing dolls are clearly home-made. That said, I could see buying the Avenging Narwhal, but only if it was bundled with BiPolar Polar Bear (with the baby seals that it alternatively nurtures and devours).

I doubt it was me. I've read Sundiver, but that's pretty much it. I basically no longer follow SF. The one author I semi-follow is Ian McDonald. I actually had to make an effort to get some of his books as several were never published in North America. Anyway, I wrapped up Fathers and Sons. It remains such a great book, but this time around I was far more intrigued by the secondary characters, who are quite well-drawn. I didn't dislike Bazarov, but I really wondered what it was that made so many people think he was destined for greatness. He was a stiff-necked truth-teller who wouldn't bow to convention. And that's pretty much it. He wasn't even a particularly good doctor, managing to cut himself pretty badly while doing a pointless autopsy. Obviously that boldness and unconventionality meant a fair bit back then whereas now professional contrarians of all stripes litter our airways and the internet. However, I did grow up in a fairly self-satisfied suburb that went all in for Reagan, and I often got into arguments over religion and such as a teenager, so Bazarov really did strike a chord with me back then. I remember thinking that the great are often ground down, while it is the mediocrities, such as Arkady, that thrive. I don't feel that way at all now, and it is clear in hindsight that isn't even what Turgenev meant to convey. I also did not realize that Pavel was essentially a stand-in for Turgenev, who had a very unhappy love life. I'm 2/3rds through Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia. It's brilliant stuff, but you need so much additional information to really understand all the side references. I only knew a little bit of this when I saw the plays (it's certainly a case where program notes are essential pre-performance reading). Reading the plays now, I am understanding so much more. It's certainly an open question if the whole trilogy will ever be staged again, though I have a bit of a running bet where they might pop up next. It would probably be Chicago, Toronto or Minneapolis but with Seattle as a dark horse. Anyway, I am nearly finished with my long journey through Russian literature and its offshoots. Probably one more month. Next I'll be reading Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, followed by Platonov's Happy Moscow and Soul.

Given shipping prices to the Great White North, I may opt for the Kindle version, but I need to test that I can read on my home machine as well. Congrats again.

Congrats, Mike! Looking forward to this. Any idea when the dls will be ready? Early 2015?

Absolutely. Right now I am feeling very pressed for time, and I kind of resent long books unless they are truly great. Every long book that I've reread recently I've liked less than the first go-around (Pickwick Papers, Atwood's Cat's Eye, Findley's Headhunter, Rushdie's Midnight's Children). Doesn't mean I dislike them, but they didn't seem as worth it. But I might have a very different relationship with time (and long novels) when I retire, if I ever do... That's not a problem with short books where I am definitely picking up other things than the first go-around. I'd say I'd still prefer Dostoevsky over Tolstoy, but I might actually choose Turgenev over both... I'm actually surprised at how quickly Bazarov gets embroiled with Madame Odintsov. Turgenev has a much more tightly plotted book than most the other Russian authors.

The Fresh Sounds site lists Colpix SCP433, which is the stereo version, but frankly that doesn't mean much. They might well have used a mono source.

Itzhak Perlman was in town with Rohan de Silva on piano. He seems to have some mobility issues, as he went around -- and even played from -- a little scooter. The music was good though: Vivaldi's Violin Sonata in A, Beethoven Violin Sonata No 7 and Ravel's Violin Sonata #2. The Ravel was interesting, as it was so heavily influenced by Gershwin, but I liked the Beethoven the best. They played a number of short pieces after that, mostly transcriptions done by Kreisler or Heifetz, with many of them being transcriptions of Rachmaninoff, though they ended with Poulenc and Albeniz. Not sure how much longer Perlman will be touring, so I'm glad I went.

These line-ups are quite incredible. I think the Soviet Jazz Themes, helmed by Vic Feldman, looks fascinating. I may have to order this.