What are you currently reading?

[steve ridgway]

What's his view of it?

It changed while he was looking.

[Florestan]

It changed while he was looking.

The cat was dead while being alive... or was it viceversa? 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

What's his view of it?

Pretty much the world according to Upanishad, IMO.
Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.
I am in the middle of the book, and I wonder if he talks about ideality/physicality of time.

[steve ridgway]

Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.

I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.    Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD

[SimonNZ]

I've had that on the shelves for a while waiting to be read. I'll be very interested to know what you make of it.

I got it after reading an essay by Geoff Dyer on why its one of his favorite books. He highlights the skill of the historical/political analysis and how applicable and insightful it is for events of later years.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.

Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.

[steve ridgway]

Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.

This is good. From a scientific point of view anyway - I've had my fill of modern conceptual art.

[Brian]

Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.    Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD

I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin." 

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Moliere.

[steve ridgway]

Half way through Fifty Shades of Grey it's very easy reading, a transparent writing style that conveys the story clearly with no attempt to impress the reader with sophisticated use of language or references. I'm finding it interesting to learn about the different sexual practices and attitudes, what the attraction is, why people might enjoy them, and the general idea that one's preconceptions and conditioning might have made one reject something as unpleasant or disgusting when in fact when one tries it, it might actually turn out to be rather enjoyable. I doubt I'll be adopting either character as a role model but it's making me think about where I agree or disagree with them and what my own position might be.

The remaining half of Fifty Shades of Grey didn't teach me any more. It turned into more of a romance and ended abruptly, making it clear this was part one of a trilogy. It was OK but didn't leave me desperate to buy the next instalment. The wife (who hasn't finished it yet) or I may or may not continue with it at some point (it's cheaper to buy the individual books on Kindle than the whole trilogy as a single volume). On the whole I'm more inclined to re-read Colin Wilson's fifty year old novel The God of the Labyrinth which has a more interesting and unpredictable (if unbelievable) story while attempting a serious investigation into the nature of the sexual impulse and how it might be used to enhance one's general life experience.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin." 

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.

Thanks for the quote and your descriptions of her upbringing!    Poor sister, I hope that she truly wasn't that bad--and vain (or insecure?)! 

PD

[Karl Henning]

Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.

[steve ridgway]

Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.

He's one of the classic SF authors I used to read when younger, had a lot of imagination and clever ideas as I recall.

I'm wondering whether I dare launch myself into the wife's collection of medical, cell biology, biochemistry and diet books. She's been teaching herself for a few years now and has over 3,600 followers on Twitter where she discusses it all with medical professionals, scientists etc. Not that many regular people are willing to question the authorities and prevailing beliefs, and it sets us at odds with nearly everyone we know, but it might be interesting and useful to me.

[vers la flamme]

Finished this:



Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time

Excellent. And some very great insight on music, too.

Meanwhile, Princess Mary had finished her song. Murmurs of praise were to be heard all around. I went up to her after all the other guests, and said something rather carelessly to her on the subject of her voice.

She made a little grimace, pouting her lower lip, and dropped a very sarcastic curtsey.

"That is all the more flattering," she said, "because you have not been listening to me at all; but perhaps you do not like music?"...

"On the contrary, I do... After dinner, especially."

"Grushnitski is right in saying that you have very prosaic tastes... and I see that you like music in a gastronomic respect."

"You are mistaken again: I am by no means an epicure. I have a most wretched digestion. But music after dinner puts one to sleep, and to sleep after dinner is healthful; consequently I like music in a medicinal respect. In the evening, on the contrary, it excites my nerves too much: I become either too melancholy or too gay. Both are fatiguing, where there is no positive reason for being either sorrowful or glad. And, moreover, melancholy in society is ridiculous, and too great gaiety is unbecoming"...

I read that in Russian lit class freshman year in college—it was the second thing we read after Pushkin's Tales of Belkin—but I've forgotten most of it. I just picked up a copy at a used bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina and will try and read it again sometime. I do remember it being quite good, though I found the "superfluous man" main character a little annoying.

I've read some incredible books recently: Turgenev's Fathers & Sons, a couple of the Sherlock Holmes novels, and most recently a couple by Haruki Murakami that I really loved: Men Without Women, a short story collection, and Norwegian Wood, which I guess was his big breakthrough novel. I especially enjoyed the latter, which seemed to perfectly encapsulate so many of the feelings I experienced at age 18-21. I'm hooked, I'd love to read more Murakami now. He's written a ton of books. I love how he incorporates music into his novels; it's obvious that he's quite as obsessed with classical music as the best of us.

I'm curious if anyone here has read any of his work, and what they think of it. I certainly think he has his flaws: namely, he seems very much to be a male-perspective writer like a Hemingway, Vonnegut, or even Bukowski. I get the feeling that a woman reader might not get nearly as much out of the aforementioned books, which I see as a defect. But there is something about his writing that really resonates with me.

[vers la flamme]

Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.

I really enjoyed The Man in the High Castle when I read it in college. That might be another book worth revisiting.

[Jo498]

Like many books by PK Dick I think "The Man in the High Castle" has a great start and enough ideas for two books (one could make a whole book series out of the alternative history element and a totally different single book from the fake memorabilia idea, I think) but somehow peters out at the end and is a little disappointing. Rumour has it that Dick really churned out some of these short/middle length books within one or two weeks while on amphetamines and when the drugs ran out, so did his energy or inspiration.

[steve ridgway]

Jack Challoner - The Cell: A Visual Tour of the Building Block of Life.

[Karl Henning]

Like many books by PK Dick I think "The Man in the High Castle" has a great start and enough ideas for two books (one could make a whole book series out of the alternative history element and a totally different single book from the fake memorabilia idea, I think) but somehow peters out at the end and is a little disappointing. Rumour has it that Dick really churned out some of these short/middle length books within one or two weeks while on amphetamines and when the drugs ran out, so did his energy or inspiration.

Interesting, thanks!

[Florestan]

Going on with this:



Thomas Hardy - Far From the Madding Crowd

Excellent!