What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

Started:

[BasilValentine]

More than two thirds into the 1st volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Romanian translation). I have mixed feelings about it. Splendid poetical descriptions of landscapes and very fine and insightful psychological observations expressed in, or mixed with, long-winded phrases that often border on, and sometimes cross deep into, anacoluthon territory (might be a translation thing, though). Subtle humor, too. Some sections were page turners, some others not that much. Overall, I like it.

I read the first two in English translation — struck me as massively trivial and not particularly interesting. Won't be bothering with the rest.

Just finished Swafford's biography of Beethoven and a book of Russian satire that included Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs. Rereading The Master and Margarita now.

[Handelian]

Madness ofCrowds by Douglas Murray

[ritter]

Starting Louis-Ferdinand Céline's D'un château l'autre (Castle to Castle):


I had read Céline's most famous novel, Journey to the End of the Night, decades ago, and remember being quite impressed at the time (but must admit I now have almost no recollection of it). What led me to tackle this post-war novel was a documentary I recently watched television on the outlandish evacuation of the Vichy government to the Sigmaringen castle in Germany in the final days of WW2. Céline, a noted collaborationist and antisemite, took part in those bizarre events, and the novel deals with them. It starts, though, with a very bitter Céline in Paris (after having spent time incarcerated in Denmark—where he had fled to after the German defeat—and being dishonoured) complaining about his lot. Very bitter, but brilliantly written. Let's see how it progresses.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt for the mass.

[AlberichUndHagen]

Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt to the mass.

I've been meaning to read that but I'm still reading Joseph   

[SimonNZ]

Still going with Martin Gilbert's memoir of working in the Churchill archives. In the meantime knocked off this, the first of Le Guin's books I've read, but will now quickly be seeking out more:

[Jo498]

You haven't read Earthsea as a kid? It's three fairly short books (and another one much later, supposedly different/worse which I have not read) that were very original in the first 1970s fantasy wave (among other things because they were absolutely no Tolkien clones).
A big book is "The left hand of darkness", maybe LeGuin's most famous single book. Also highly recommendable (although I think that the central and weird biological aspect of that SF society is surprisingly irrelevant for most of the plot).
She was certainly one of the best/most important SF writers of the last ca. 50 years.

[SimonNZ]

Nope, never read Earthsea. A friend of mine is a big LeGuin fan and has been trying to get me to read The Left Hand Of Darkness and also The Dispossesed, which I'll really have to do now.

[vers la flamme]

Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt for the mass.

I read this a few months ago. Loved it

[André]

I read this a few months ago. Loved it

Mann's best short novel IMO. The very last paragraph is exquisite, like a musical theme that has been heard in bits and pieces throughout and is quoted in full only at the very end.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Mann's best short novel IMO. The very last paragraph is exquisite, like a musical theme that has been heard in bits and pieces throughout and is quoted in full only at the very end.

+1. Death in Venice is much more praised and popular, but I am not sure if it is better than TK. Other short (shorter) stories by Mann are wonderful as well.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This is it.
After Mann, currently reading this renowned novel. My first read was when I was 13y/o. After that I read it more than 10 times.
I am sure many members here know and praise the novel.

[Florestan]

This is it.
After Mann, currently reading this renowned novel. My first read was when I was 13y/o. After that I read it more than 10 times.
I am sure many members here know and praise the novel.

This is also very good, in case you haven't read it yet.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This is also very good, in case you haven't read it yet.

I haven't heard about this book. I will have a librarian look for an edition in my primary language.
If it is not available, I will read an English edition.
I appreciate your suggestion of the very interesting book.

[Jo498]

Tonio Kröger was mandatory in my time in German high school around 1990. I wasn't so fond of it (too much focus on that artist vs. bourgeois thesis and not enough story for my taste back then) and never re-read it as I somehow lost my collection of most of Mann's shorter prose. Back then I wasn't a great fan of "Death in Venice" either (too much decadent atmosphere and not enough plot/story). "Tonio Kröger" is a fairly obvious choice for school, though, because of theme and reasonable length.

When around that time (between ca. 17 and 20 yo) I read most of Mann's short stuff and three or four of the major novels, I preferred the longer novels (Zauberberg etc.) and of the shorter ones the shorter bitingly ironic ones like "Wälsungenblut" (an semi-parodistic story inspired by Walküre, Act I) to the above. But it's a long time ago. Had I not lost that collection, I'd probably have revisited the shorter prose.

Tbe Hesse school piece in Germany used to be "Unterm Rad" (Beneath the wheel), but we didn't do it. Siddharta has been a youth favorite since the 60s hippies or earlier. I  preferred "Steppenwolf" (and maybe Glass bead game but the latter is a bit mysterious).

[Florestan]

I haven't heard about this book. I will have a librarian look for an edition in my primary language.

What language would that be, if I may ask?

I appreciate your suggestion of the very interesting book.

I read it many years ago and was quite impressed. If you like Siddharta you'll certainly like this one too.

[André]

Tonio Kröger was mandatory in my time in German high school around 1990. I wasn't so fond of it (too much focus on that artist vs. bourgeois thesis and not enough story for my taste back then) and never re-read it as I somehow lost my collection of most of Mann's shorter prose. Back then I wasn't a great fan of "Death in Venice" either (too much decadent atmosphere and not enough plot/story). "Tonio Kröger" is a fairly obvious choice for school, though, because of theme and reasonable length.

When around that time (between ca. 17 and 20 yo) I read most of Mann's short stuff and three or four of the major novels, I preferred the longer novels (Zauberberg etc.) and of the shorter ones the shorter bitingly ironic ones like "Wälsungenblut" (an semi-parodistic story inspired by Walküre, Act I) to the above. But it's a long time ago. Had I not lost that collection, I'd probably have revisited the shorter prose.

Tbe Hesse school piece in Germany used to be "Unterm Rad" (Beneath the wheel), but we didn't do it. Siddharta has been a youth favorite since the 60s hippies or earlier. I  preferred "Steppenwolf" (and maybe Glass bead game but the latter is a bit mysterious).

I never took to Death in Venice either. I prefer the film (Visconti) and the opera (Britten). Wälsungenblut is very good indeed, and more than a little osé. Rolf Thiele made a very good film out of it. I must have been something like 14 when I saw it on tv - rather troubling stuff, I must say  . Thiele was kind of a Mann enthusiast, filming Tonio Kröger, Confessions of Felix Krull and His Royal Highness as well.

[Jo498]

I haven't seen any of the films and wasn't even aware that there was one on Wälsungenblut. This would have probably been impossible in school in my time (and the Wagner connection completely lost on most of the class). Even Death in Venice would have been a bit borderline as homosexuality wasn't taboo but not really a comfortable topic (and while there is no touching IIRC,  Aschenbach's object of desire is a ca. 14 yo boy) although I could imagine that some teachers would assign it.
There are a few more really funny short pieces, like the Wunderkind/child prodigy or the "Prophet" (some crazy sectarian leader, apparently closely modelled after a real person). But overall I think Mann's main strength is in the longer novels with enough time and space to develop the motives.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Visconti and Bunuel are my favorite directors. Plus Dirk Bogarde is my fav actor.  I like Death in Venice, Conversation Peace and Ludwig. As for Hesse, have you guys watched the movie of Steppenwolf? It is a weird movie (for the weird novel). I love both the book and movie.