What are you currently reading?

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Solitary Wanderer



Read this last night. Wonderful stuff. Great imagery. Spooky tale.
'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

J.Z. Herrenberg

#1021
Yes, it remains a powerful poem!

My favourite passage is in Part III -

The western wave was all a-flame.
The day was well nigh done !
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun ;
When that strange shape drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.

And straight the Sun was flecked with bars,
(Heaven's Mother send us grace !)
As if through a dungeon-grate he peered
With broad and burning face.

Alas ! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears !
Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,
Like restless gossameres ?

And those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate ?
And is that Woman all her crew ?
Is that a DEATH ? and are there two ?
Is DEATH that woman's mate ?
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Haffner

Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 20, 2008, 10:49:39 AM


Read this last night. Wonderful stuff. Great imagery. Spooky tale.




Great song, too!

Florestan

How about this exquisite powerful imagery?

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.


A true masterpiece, indeed!
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

karlhenning

This, from my lunchtime fortune cookie; and yes, it is excellent:

QuoteToday is to conserve yourself, as things just won't budge.

M forever



Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.

Kullervo

Quote from: M forever on February 22, 2008, 08:13:15 PM


Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.

I borrowed that from a friend of mine a few years ago (still haven't given it back ;D) and enjoyed it. Good read.

val

"EMPIRES OF THE WORD", from Nicholas Ostler

A very interesting essay on the development and expansion of most universal languages.

Danny



Made up mostly of speeches delivered during his tenures in the House; all I can say is that this man is truly a political prophet and his conviction--with is dedication to principle--has allowed him forsee a lot of the mess that is happening today (inflation, massive deficit, trade imbalances, staggering debt, failed foreign interventionist policy, weaking of civil liberties, etc.). 

karlhenning

Quote from: Dame Edna EverageNever be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.

Wisdom.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

Quote from: Jezetha on February 25, 2008, 08:54:59 AM
(see signature; if you can see it, that is)...

I know (see, oh, never mind  ;D )

Drasko

Reading, yes, just not by me:

http://rapidshare.com/files/93930068/Audio_Book_-_Edgar_Allen_Poe_-_The_Raven.rar

Maybe we can make a little quiz - who does the reading?

(8MB mp3 file)

Lethevich

Very weird stuff by Lord Dunsany. My two favourites (they are both short):

THE WORKMAN

I saw a workman fall with his scaffolding right from the summit of
some vast hotel. And as he came down I saw him holding a knife
and trying to cut his name on the scaffolding. He had time to try and
do this for he must have had nearly three hundred feet to fall. And I
could think of nothing but his folly in doing this futile thing, for not
only would the man be unrecognizably dead in three seconds, but the
very pole on which he tried to scratch whatever of his name he had
time for was certain to be burnt in a few weeks for firewood.

Then I went home for I had work to do. And all that evening I thought
of the man's folly, till the thought hindered me from serious work.

And late that night while I was still at work, the ghost of the workman
floated through my wall and stood before me laughing.

I heard no sound until after I spoke to it; but I could see the grey
diaphanous form standing before me shuddering with laughter.

I spoke at last and asked what it was laughing at, and then the ghost
spoke. It said: "I'm a laughin' at you sittin' and workin' there."

"And why," I asked, "do you laugh at serious work?"

"Why, yer bloomin' life 'ull go by like a wind," he said, "and yer 'ole
silly civilization 'ull be tidied up in a few centuries."

Then he fell to laughing again and this time audibly; and, laughing
still, faded back through the wall again and into the eternity from
which he had come.

THE TOMB OF PAN

"Seeing," they said, "that old-time Pan is dead, let us now make
a tomb for him and a monument, that the dreadful worship of long
ago may be remembered and avoided by all."

So said the people of the enlightened lands. And they built a
white and mighty tomb of marble. Slowly it rose under the hands
of the builders and longer every evening after sunset it gleamed with
rays of the departed sun.

And many mourned for Pan while the builders built; many reviled
him. Some called the builders to cease and to weep for Pan and
others called them to leave no memorial at all of so infamous a god.
But the builders built on steadily.

And one day all was finished, and the tomb stood there like a
steep sea-cliff. And Pan was carved thereon with humbled head
and the feet of angels pressed upon his neck. And when the tomb
was finished the sun had already set, but the afterglow was rosy on
the huge bulk of Pan.

And presently all the enlightened people came, and saw the tomb
and remembered Pan who was dead, and all deplored him and his
wicked age. But a few wept apart because of the death of Pan.

But at evening as he stole out of the forest, and slipped like a shadow
softly along the hills, Pan saw the tomb and laughed.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

J.Z. Herrenberg

I know Lord Dunsany's fantasy stories quite well. These two are very nice parables. The first one is a sober assessment of the futility of making a name for yourself, I think, life being short and everything transient...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Solitary Wanderer



I'm up to Book.2. [of 4] in this amazing epic. It really is quite a sensational story.  :)
'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Haffner

Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 02:17:58 PM


I'm up to Book.2. [of 4] in this amazing epic. It really is quite a sensational story.  :)



Got to get that one. Wondering whether to start with the Brown book first.

I'm knee deep in the 2nd volume of Life of Richard Wagner (Newman) currently.

paulb

Quote from: M forever on February 22, 2008, 08:13:15 PM


Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.

When ever I catch his show, its always very entertaining.
I love how he goes into the back streets and gets to the real down home cooking. But also gives a  POV of a  city/country's culture that's engaging and witty. Definitely one of the best travel shows.
Thanks for the posting, I'll place it on my wish list. :)

Solitary Wanderer

Quote from: Haffner on February 26, 2008, 02:47:05 PM


Got to get that one. Wondering whether to start with the Brown book first.

I'm knee deep in the 2nd volume of Life of Richard Wagner (Newman) currently.

Yes Andy, I want to read The Brown Book also, but my understanding is that it covers the years between the completion of the autobiography and the begining of Cosimas diaries so logically My Life should be read first  :) I also believe the Brown Book is more 'notes' and thus a less compelling read.

I appreciate you are a Wagner fan so I highly recommend his autobiography to you;its amazing and I'm less than half way through it.  :)
'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Haffner

Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 04:19:41 PM
Yes Andy, I want to read The Brown Book also, but my understanding is that it covers the years between the completion of the autobiography and the begining of Cosimas diaries so logically My Life should be read first  :) I also believe the Brown Book is more 'notes' and thus a less compelling read.

I appreciate you are a Wagner fan so I highly recommend his autobiography to you;its amazing and I'm less than half way through it.  :)




It's on my wish list now, thanks so much!