Number four is M.O. Percival's A Reading of Moby-Dick. He intertexts Melville's sea-bound obra with Milton, Goethe, shakespeare, Dante, Blake, and even Hesiod. He even employs Kierkegaard, Freud, and Jung. Galing-galing. Pati Taoism, Mysticism, atsaka ancient Persian duality of good and evil ginamit. Sa lahat-lahat, natutunan ko sa librong ito ang tunay na kahulugan at kahalagahan ng mahusay na kritisismo. Good criticism makes you feel good, justified, and righteous that you slaved over a very long book.

Number five is The Epic of Labaw Donggon from Central Panay. I'm just beginning to appreciate our epics. This one made me feel for the villain, Sarangayan, who protects his wife from the philandering hero, Labaw Donggon. Our villain, sensing his doom at the hands of the hero's heir, asks permission to say his last words to his wife before the conclusion of the battle. The hammock scene is the most poignant farewell I know in epic lore. Sarangayan whispers his last instructions to his wife, rocks her to sleep with his charms and tunes, and then departs with a command to the attendant uripon to keep the flies from their mistress. He then re-engages the heir and receives an arrow between his eyes.

Kilala naman 'nyo ang lolo, melodramatic.

Number six is the second book of Don Quixote as translated by William Starkie. I read part one before our countdown then the books listed here. I only got to finish part two. Anyway, there's a decade between the volumes, and it feels better to read second after a nice break. I will leaf through another translation some other time. I'm eyeing Samuel Putnam's. I don't know if that will count for the purpose of our index though. I'll just see when I get there.

Then, after the translations, I'll read the critics! Harhar.