books and exams

I have unleashed the evil from Pandora’s Box, and I did it in a very bad time, why did I start the blog these days?!
My exams are less than 3 weeks away, and I want to get out of this stupid college, I already failed two midterms, and I have no idea what I did in the rest.

Anyways, I feel so bad because I haven’t read anything, ANYTHING, for 2 months now, I have never went through such a period of drought, I only read one or two issues of national geographic.

I got out so many books out the library to read, I already have “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck... which is very good candidate, I haven’t been to American 1920’s for quite sometime now, and well, it’s a very rich novel, I like family sagas, and I haven’t read anything for Steinbeck except "of mice and men" about 6 years ago.

But I had already decided that this year is solely for books, not novels, so there’s Freud’s “interpretation of Dreams” I read already around 70 pages in it, but its still is a long way, the book is 700 pages, I haven’t reached yet any of the interesting stuff, and I wont reach for sometime…

And then there is book that made me read War and peace: “Natasha’s Dance, a cultural history of Russia” I had read first about it in BBC’s History magazine, then when I saw it in AUC bookstore and for less than 100 LE I bought it… I just love Russian Literature, and I really believe that we as Egyptians can easily relate with them (well, at some point in our history and in their history, certainly not now) the peasants, rural life, the struggle between westernization and traditional beliefs and ways. It’s an immensely rich culture.

But then I feel guilty … How can I start reading a 700 page book about Russian Culture, and I haven’t finished yet the remaining 500 Pages in the the book “Tareekh elfekr elphalshy lel 3rb” I started that one around two and half years ago, and I totally admit I was a complete ignorant regarding Arab and Islamic Philosophy, but when I started reading I realized I was below ignorant, I just knew the names, I mean I heard about elmo3tazla, I read little about Shia3a, el7alag and ibn el3rbi, and I saw el maseer : )

I didn’t know the authors (my mistake of course, Hanna Elfakhoury & Khalil Elgar) and I was afraid the book would be biased or something, specially that I didn’t have anything to compare it with, it’s the first time I read about Islamic philosophy, but from my humble experience I think so far that its impartial.
I was totally dazzled with elmo3tazla, and I found ekhwan elsafa extremely interesting to the point that I started talking like them, “e3lam ayoha elakh”: ) but I stopped at Ibn El3rbi’s chapter, I remember when I was in thanwia amma we had a poem by him, and I was obsessed with it, I loved it so much, and it got me into reading mowsh7at elandalousia…. I am soooooo stupid why didn’t I continue the book; I have a book about elmowsh7at I should start reading that too.

And then there is the invincible Michel Foucault, after reading Edward Said’s “Orientalism” I thought the sky is limit, lets read Foucault and Wittgenstein and maybe Ulysses, so I went and bought “ The Archeology of knowledge” by Foucault, and when I started reading the first two pages, I realized this was the wrong place and the wrong time (February) elketab me7tag makhmakha, and winter isn’t the time, and certainly not spring, spring is the season of depression, and this isn’t certainly the kind of book I can read in CTA as I am going to college, or before I go to sleep.. This needs a3da lewa7do... so its back ma3a ekhwato on the bookshelf...

it wont be 2 month before I finish, a small play seems to be the most appropriate thing, or an Arabic novel, I hate to walk around with Arabic novels, people ask me all sort of stupid questions and comments like : bet7ki 3an eih elqesa, (shocked) eih dah bet2re naguib mahfoz?!

I hate exams…