Kafka links

The great thing about the web is that you can read a book and turn to a huge online resource of interesting article, free translations and extra stuff like photography of Prague in the time when Franz kafka lived there. A few years ago - pre children when money was more available - I visited Prague and picked up a couple of Kafka's Prague type books and the great thing is that most of that material is now online for free. If you have never visited Prague then it is a great place, not just for Kafka lovers, and if you get the chance go.

A good starting point for Kafka links is the Franz Kafka on the web page that links through to sites in various languages (although be warned some were not working). Then there is of course the obligitary Wikipedia reference. But one that stood out was The Ledge, which provides summaries of the books and suggestions of further reading but has a flash interface that is really worth having a look at and has lots of interviews ana summaries of other books.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez link

The beauty of the Internet is that it provides virtual libraries of information about a book or an author. If the links are good it can really add value to the reading experience. In a brief scan of what is out there on Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Modern Word site stands out and is not only a good place to find out all about the author but also a chance to read the latest news, which includes a mention of the Guardian story from the summer on the possibility that Love in the Time of Cholera is going to be made into a film.

Great Odyssey link

I know the Odyssey is not everyone’s cup of tea but if you want to go through it quickly and get the benefit of the story without the need to go through some of the repetitive retelling of the years of Odysseus’s exile then the Odysseus web site is the best place I discovered while looking for Homer link’s that I can recommend.

Great Ulysses links

Before I forget and Ulysses dissapears into the distant past these are some really good links that have a combination of serious facts, free copies of the book and an animated version of the story that is worth looking at whether you intend to read Joyce's work or not.

A good start would be the Ulysses site edited by John Barger with links, analysis and timelines for the characters

The Brazen Head is a site with a similar ambition to be the start for all things Joyce and this looks at the author on a much wider basis than just Ulysses

Wikipedia is always worth a check for the essentials and it points to some of the links summarised here

Project Gutenberg of course has the text if you want to try it without having to go out and find a copy of the book as does the One page of Ulysses a day blog

For a great audio guide through the book, with lots of insight into the characters and the locations you cannot beat the RTE Radio 1 Irish radio Reading Ulysses series

For light relief try the Ulysses for Dummies site with its animated version of the epic

Hope they help if you set off to read Ulysses the RTE site really helped me to get to grips with it all and some of the other sites have got me ready for more Joyce

Downloadable Ulysses

If you fancy reading Ulysses without having to spend some money first to find out if it’s your sort of thing a copy of the text is available on Project Gutenberg and readers in the US can sample it copyright free. It is also available at bibliomania so the choice is yours.

Ulysses one page at a time

If you fancy reading a page of Ulysses one at a time and probably spending the next few years doing it then the James Joyce Ulysses one page every day blog is doing just that and the great thing is that the entire book has been posted - taking the blogger on this site a couple of years worth of work from the looks of it. It is a great idea for anyone who wants to dip into the book and get a feel for the challenging style. I recommend page 57 as an example of just what lies in store.

Good Proust links

I am on the brink of putting together my thoughts about Proust and Remembrance of Things Past now I have finished the seven volumes – just want to get Albertine Gone completed – but in the meantime if my posts on the great man and his books have wetted your appetite then here are some great links (in no particular order) to find out more about Proust and his world:

Wikipedia – which has a biography, comments on the books and some further links

The Kolb-Proust archive – an online archive of letters, bibliography and some FAQs on the writer

Tempsperdu.com - a site simply dedicated to Remembrance of Things Past with the chance to buy books and CD-ROMs

Involuntary memory -a blog dedicated to reading and commenting on Remembrance of Things Past

Reading Proust – focuses on the new Penguin/Viking editions which has some good links and details of the latest Penguin editions

Other possibilities:

Le temps de proust – this is a blog about reading Proust but it doesn’t seem to have been updated since January but there is some good archive material on there

Book at bedtime

It can be pretty hard going reading in this summer heat so as an alternative it's possible to listen all this week, and for the next seven days, to For Whom the bell tolls on BBC Radio 4. It's the stations Book at bedtime this week.
Click on this link for more information and to listen again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_bedtime.shtml