I blogged a little on Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885. I just looked and found I had not, so I will mention that I bought the book about 1962 but had never read it. I bought it b/c there was almost nothing on Africa available then. Having read Cuba and Its Music and The Voice of the Leopard, both of which remark extensively on the culture of the Delta, I pulled the book down and found myself riveted. I’ve finished it, so, following that, I’m starting another book I bought about the same time simply b/c it was about that part of the continent: Gerald Durrell’s The Bafut Beagles. It’s mainly about animals but he describes in a sympathetic ways the Africans he encounters and is noted for that. At the same time, I started a book I bought almost ten years ago, maybe less, on the experience in Greece of the pre-war and war time period of 4 men: two Greeks, the poet George Seferis and the critic Katsimbalis along with the American, Henry Miller of Tropic of Cancer/Capricorn fame, and Gerald Durrell’s more famous brother, Lawrence. So far the book on Greece has captivated me and promises to lead me into my study of modern Greek poetry. The author, Edmund Keeley, is probably the preeminent American scholar and critic of modern Greek poetry. I got interested in this in looking over his book Six Poets of Modern Greece some years back. Now that I’ll have time to study Greek more thoroughly, I’m looking forward to reading the fair amount of poetry I have in Greek. I also found a 2 volume set of poetry in Greek and when I got home and checked the poet out, it turns out he is one of the top 10 poets of modern Greece. Now, do I buy it or not? I hate to let it go, but will I really read 2 volumes of this guy’s poetry………. in Greek?
Anyway, that’s my reading now and I have only 2 weeks to go until retirement.