Reading Life Review July 2015, A Look Back at Paris in July # 6, A Look Ahead at 2015

I offer my great thanks to Max u for providing me with Amazon Cards

July 2015 was a very good reading month for me.  My activity was dominated by my participation in one of my very favorite international book blog events, Paris in July.  

Paris in July # 6. 

Works I read for the event:

Paris in July # 6. , hosted by Tamarra of Thyme for Tea, a blog I have followed for years,is one of my favorite book blog events.  It covers much more than literature and there are lots of wonderful participant posts online.

Paris in July # 6. motivated me to read some very interesting works.

1.  "Baum, Gabriel, 1935" by Mavis Gilbert - A wonderful set in Paris short story

2.  "Two Friends" by Guy de Maupassant- Paris in July # 6. Requires reading de Maupassant!

3.  "Mildred Larson" by George Moore- What Paris Meant to the Irish

4.  "The Parisian Stage" by Henry James - an illuminating essay

5.  "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" by Marcel Aymé- a new to me writer I will return to

6.   Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose - interesting 

7.  Shocking Paris Soutine, Chagall and the Outlaw Art of Montaparrne by Stanley Meisler-a 

     Well done account of Yiddish emigre artists in Paris

8.  Short Stories about Cats by Three Classic French authors 

9.  Suite Francaise by Iréne Némirovsky- a true masterwork. Paris under the Germans

10.  The End of Evil Ways by Honoré de Balzac

11.  Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick- brilliant bio.

12.  The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, translated by Sandra Smith

13.  "A Peice of Bread" by Francois Coppee - A Franco Prussian War Story

14.   "Night Crimes" by Emmanuel Bove. The Poet of the Paris Skid Row

15.  Pynchon and Paris- Paris Refrences in Gravity's Rainbow

16.  The Wine of Solitude by Iréne Némirovsky (her most autobiographical work)

17.  "The Ball" by Iréne Némirovsky-very funny story about a girl's revenge on her mother.

18.  David Golder by Iréne Némirovsky- White Russians in Paris- White Russians are one of my interests.

19.  "The Other Wife" by Colette-  

During Paris in July # 6 I fell in love with the work of Iréne Némirovsky, renewed my passion for Colette and developed a grudging admiration for Coco Chanel.  Balzac, the Emperor of Paris writers, took me on a tour of a prison, Emmanuel Bove, a protege of Colette walked me through a Christmas Eve night in the roughest slums of Paris, Colette invited me to an elegant restaurant.  Francois Coppee and Guy de Maupassant took us back to Paris during the era of the Franco-Prussian War, 1870 to 1871.  I learned about Yiddish artists in Paris.  Henry James lectured us on Parisian Theater.  George Moore helped me see what Paris meant to the Irish.  I read three cat stories by classic French writers that I enjoyed a lot.  I also took a look just for myself at refrences to Paris in Gravity's Rainbow.  We spent a few nights we won't talk about The Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932.

I loved reading the many posts on French food, looking at the beautiful pictures taken on trips and all the other interesting participant posts.

I offer my great thanks to Tamara for hosting Paris in July # 6 and hope so much I can participate next year in Paris in July # 7.

I discovered a number of new blogs through the event to which I have entered subscriptions.

Review of The Reading Life July 2015

Since inception I have had 3,546,663 page views.  I have 4075 Twitter followers

For the first time in the history of The Reading Life there has been a change in the country with the most visitors top rank.  The Philippines edged out The U.S.A for the first time ever in six year.

1.  The Philippines 

2.  USA

3.  India 

4.  Russia

5. Germany

The top city of residence for a visitor is Metro Manila, no contest at all.  

I predict as the Internet becomes more widely available in India, readership from the Subcontinent will rise rapidly.  Once China opens up the net, I hope some new readers will find their way to my blog.

Other than short stories of the Philippines, the most viewed writers on my blog are Katherine Mansfield and R. K. Narayan.  Almost all of my posts on older short stories by Subcontinent authors draw continuous readership.  

The top most viewed seven posts for July 2015 were all on short stories by authors from the Philippines.

I continued reading on and about Clarice Lispector and I started a project on the short stories of Maeve Brennan..

I read Primo Levi's very powerful memoir of Aushwitz, If This is a Man.  I was very kindly given the complete works of Primo Levi by the Publisher, 3008 pages, and will endeavor to read more of his work.  I greatly enjoyed reading  a book by Linda Lappin, based on her creative writing workshops. 

I read a very strange novel by Flaubert, Salammbô. 

Going Forward in 2015

Basic plan is more of the same.  I am doing a read through of Honore de Balzac's The Human Comedy and have so far read 70 of the 91 components.  In November I hope to read a lot of German language works, in Translation.  I have added Iréne Némirovsky to my read all I can list.  I will continue deeper into Indian and Japanese literature and will read more short stories from the Philippines.   The more I read the more things converge together for me.  I am quite interested in Yiddish literature and works on the Holocaust.  I will read more of Irish literature.  I have a passion for works written in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Short stories are one of my passions.  I like to read biographies of authors and am now reading two of them, one on George Orwell and one on Colette.  I also read history, sort of at random.  

I am open to joint projects, guest posts and will be doing more Q and A sessions.  If anything is of lasting value on my blog, it is the 100 Q and A sessions, mostly with Irish writers but not all.

I love to discover new to me writers and am receptive to offers of books for review of all sorts.  I look at everything I am sent.  Pretty much i only accept E Books for review purposes.  

I offer my great thanks to those who have taken the trouble to leave comments.  

If you are a published online author and want to be featured on my blog, please contact me.

I thank Ambrosia Boussweau, European Correspondent of The Reading Life, for her sage advice and for sharing her vast erudition with me.

To my fellow book bloggers, keep blogging, don't quit the holy game of book blogging. I hope one day bloggers can look back on their fifty year old book blogs and see a  life time of reading.  

Mel u