No more backlogged issues of the New York Review of Books to read. Jane Jacobs wrote on a reissue of Hard Times. She skips rather lightly over the circus. "Tiempos dificilies" was the first non-Agatha-Christie book that I read in Spanish. The edition was from a set of cheap left-leaning books sold at Buena Vista railroad station in Mexico City. I think that Merrylegs was called "patos de alegre" or something like that. Other books in the series included writings of Chairman Mao, Che Guevara, etc. Also reviewed (by Elizabeth Hardwick) is the best-selling book on Seabiscuit. How great it would be to be at the flats at Saratoga right now! In the August 9 issue, dauntingly called the "midsummer issue," McMurtry writes about the anthropologists who have associated themselves with Zuni, among them Frank Cushing. The piece is entertaining. McMurtry can't get over seeing a video-rental place next to the church. Also in that issue is a consideration by Updike of "The Blithedale Romance."