Tag Archives: you-are-there reading

“I had lost my self-confidence where you were concerned, had traded it for a boundless sense of guilt

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Kate Stover

I’ve been thinking about Kafka’s story about turning into an insect this week, and why he would write a story about a young man who shamed his family by turning into a useless cockroach. A Czech bookstore had a book-length … Continue reading →

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“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Kate Stover

This story about a man who turned into a type of insect has been called surreal, humorous. a horror story, neurotic, and “the greatest short story in the history of literary fiction.” I visited a museum devoted t0 Kafka in … Continue reading →

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“No other river in the world can match the Danube for the sheer historical richness of the cities and landscapes through which it passes.”

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Kate Stover

As an American, I haven’t thought much about the many roles that rivers have played in other parts of the world.  In The Danube: A Cultural History, Andrew Beattie argues convincingly that when travelling the Danube, you are taking not just a … Continue reading →

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“The difference between landscape and landscape is small, but there is great difference in the beholders.”

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Kate Stover

Recently, I visited Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house in Concord, MA, which has the chair that Emerson sat in while he wrote his famous essay “Nature.”  As a fan of what Anne Fadiman calls “You-Are-There Reading” I had to reacquaint myself … Continue reading →

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