Wislawa Szymborska's poems are admired around the world, and her unsparing vision, tireless wit, and deep sense of humanity are cherished by countless readers. Unknown to most of them, however, Szymborska also worked for several decades as a columnist, reviewing a wide variety of books under the unassuming title "Nonrequired Reading."
As readers of her poems would expect, the short prose pieces collected here are anything but ordinary. Reflecting the author's own eclectic tastes and interests, the pretexts for these ruminations range from books on wallpapering, cooking, gardening, and yoga, to more lofty volumes on opera and world literature. Unpretentious yet incisive, these charming pieces are on a par with Szymborska's finest lyrics, tackling the same large and small questions with a wonderful curiosity.
Author(s): Wislawa Szymborska;Clare Cavanagh
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 256
Title Page
Table of Contents
Copyright
From the Author
Absent-Minded Professors
The Importance of Being Scared
Shortchanged
By the Numbers
Dream On
Musical Chairs
Compulsory Happiness
The Cost of Chivalry
Seeing the Light
That’s the Spirit
In Cold Blood
The State of Fashion
Love in Bloom
Feet and Fate
Humor’s Younger Brother
Great Love
Bones to Pick
The Scales of Justice
Home Improvement
Nowhere to Hide
Who’s Who
Talking Pictures
Glass Houses
Page-Turners
The Long-Distance Walker
Back to Nature
Fair Game
Changing Places
Blowing Your Own Horn
The Road to Perfection
Trouble in Paradise
Zuzia
Lilliput Lost
Divas
The Psychic Life of Pets
The Ninety-Pound Weakling
Do It Yourself
To Be Continued
How Not to Be Noble
For Every Occasion
Family Affairs
On Your Toes
Childhood and Before
Old Friends
The Myth of Poetry
In Praise of Birds
Gladiators and Others
Bringing Up the Rear
Catherine the Not-So-Great
The Courtier’s Inferno
The Art of Destruction
Cosmic Solitude
The Impresario
Close Calls
What’s the Mystery?
The Vandals’ Fate
What’s Dreaming?
Too Late, or When?
Your Honor
Roman Thickets
Black Tears
Graphology on the Barricades
I Was Traveling with the Fairest
Mummies and Us
Chips Will Fly
Monstrum
Ella
Take the Cow
Windfall
Willem Kolff
Hammurabi and After
Disneyland
Hugs for Humanity
Truth and Fiction
The Prince’s Feet, Not to Mention Other Body Parts
They Were
Round Dates
The Female Pharaoh
Cat Music
The End of the World in Plural
The Nut and the Gilded Shell
Let Me Take This Occasion
A Word on Nakedness
In Relaxation’s Clutches
Many Questions
The Piano and the Rhinoceros
Lace Hankies
Mountain Climbing
Balloons
Ten Minutes of Solitude
A Bad Little Boy
At Last
Blocks and Blockheads
Buttons
In Praise of Questions
The Cardboard-Eating Cadaver
Nervousness
Translator’s Note
About the Author
