At 10:45 -0700 25.9.2002, Erik Dahl wrote: > Casey Rousseau (>) wrote: > > > Anyone else here a fan of Umberto Eco? (On the fiction side he wrote _The > > Name of the Rose_ among others. I'm particularly asking about his > > nonfiction.) > > I've read and enjoyed a lot of his fiction, but I haven't read any of his > nonfiction. I suspect I would enjoy that, too; what would you recommend? _How to Travel with a Salmon_, a collection of Eco's short (very short) essays, articles, and humorous diaries, has some fantastic parts! (Other parts were hit and miss for me, but YMMV.) I've only read that as well as Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, but some of the pieces in the Salmon collection are hilarious -- something I hadn't expected given his novels (which certainly show some humor, but not the laugh-out-loud and silly kind, usually). My brother and I read it during a trek around Europe a few years ago, and both of us really loved it, far more than we expected to. It's in print, see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/015600125X for more info. Not exactly lit-crit, but I thought I'd throw the suggestion out anyway. :) - Nancy.