This is The Book Hold
Do you like to read hard? Then you might be in the right place.
Welcome. This is a home for serious people doing extreme reading.
The Book Hold serves a few purposes. One is making lesser-known works more visible. I incline toward translated and experimental writing, away from the current mainstream. I have a tendency to seek the weird.
It’s also a place for thinking about literature: what it is, and why it exists; the forms it takes, and why; how it differs across authors and eras; how it has changed, and continues to change. The Book Hold explores the meanings of literature, in the broadest sense.
First up, a series on literature under Mussolini in Italy, with posts on Anna Maria Ortese, Natalia Ginzburg, Paolo Masino, Luigi Pirandello, Dino Buzzati, and others.
More soon.