What are you currently reading?

[aligreto]

Thank you very much! I was going to search the art and artist. There are some nice works!

You are most welcome. I like the murals.

[vers la flamme]

Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle



Started a couple days ago, I'm about 100 pages in. I'm not instantly hooked like I normally get with Murakami's work, but I'll persevere because it's a 600 page book and maybe takes its time getting to the point. I was reading Nabokov's Lolita and had to put it down because it was making me uncomfortable; I'll have to revisit when I'm in a less fragile state mentally, lot going on in life at the moment. Sticking to "cozy" reads for now like Murakami.

[Artem]

I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle long time ago, but I remember it being not that cosy, compared with his previously published novels. I think there were some military scenes that sort of caught me off guard.

[Artem]

Finished these recently.

Baum and Tergit books were published in the early 1930s. Both novels take place in Berlin. So it was rather interesting to read them together keeping in mind Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz in the not so distant background.

Tergit book about journalists, fast changing, uncertain society was trying to achieve something similar to Doblin in style, but its effect is fairly flat. Baum's is a curious tale, perfect for a Hollywood movie about bag guys turning good and people discovering life when it is about to end for them, but again this novel too feels like something to read at the beach. Baum later went to write movie scripts.

The Disaster Tourist is a curious one. It has that kind of ambiguous timeless, placeless feel to it, that I found in other contemporary books by Japanese and Korean writers. Reviewers on goodreads website describe it having a point about destructive effects of tourism industry on native habitats, but I found it more enjoyable without that contemporary moralising side plot.

[Mandryka]

Time to bite off a biggie

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Time to bite off a biggie

Excellent novel!

[milk]

[Karl Henning]

I recently re-watched the BBC production of Bleak House (a gift some time ago from Bogey) and as a result, I've begun reading it.

[André]

[JBS]

Stealing that for the cat thread...

[vers la flamme]

I just bought a copy of this two days ago. Read it for my Russian lit (in translation) class in college and loved it, excited to revisit.

[Mandryka]

Excellent novel!

The prose, in French, is Shakespeare level. If you can read French, listen to the poetry, the humanity, the wisdom in this (Emma's father to Charles just after the death of his first wife.)

— Je sais ce que c'est, disait-il en lui frappant sur l'épaule ; j'ai été comme vous, moi aussi ! Quand j'ai eu perdu ma pauvre défunte, j'allais dans les champs pour être tout seul ; je tombais au pied d'un arbre, je pleurais ; j'appelais le bon Dieu, je lui disais des sottises ; j'aurais voulu être comme les taupes, que je voyais aux branches, qui avaient des vers leur grouillant dans le ventre, crevé enfin ! Et quand je pensais que d'autres, à ce moment-là, étaient avec leurs bonnes petites femmes à les tenir embrassées contre eux, je tapais de grands coups par terre avec mon bâton, j'étais quasiment fou, que je ne mangeais plus ; l'idée seulement d'aller au café me dégoûtait, vous ne croiriez pas. Eh bien, tout doucement, un jour chassant l'autre, un printemps sur un hiver et un automne par-dessus un été, ça a coulé brin à brin, miette à miette ; ça s'en est allé ; c'est parti, c'est descendu, je veux dire, car il vous reste toujours quelque chose au fond, comme qui dirait... un poids, là, sur la poitrine. Mais puisque c'est notre sort à tous, on ne doit pas non plus se laisser dépérir, et, parce que d'autres sont morts, vouloir mourir... Il faut vous secouer, M. Bovary ; ça se passera. Venez nous voir ; ma fille pense à vous de temps à autre, savez-vous bien, et elle dit comme ça que vous l'oubliez. Voilà le printemps bientôt ; nous vous ferons tirer un lapin dans la garenne pour vous dissiper un peu.

[André]

The prose, in French, is Shakespeare level. If you can read French, listen to the poetry, the humanity, the wisdom in this (Emma's father to Charles just after the death of his first wife.)

Beautiful indeed. Quasi impressionist writing. I've never read it...

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Pushkin, The Queen of Spades.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Nikolai Gogol, Nevsky Prospekt.

[LKB]

Just finished Code Name Chaos, the memoirs of former Defense Secretary Gen. ( ret. ) Jim Mattis. I would describe the book as a primary reference for anyone wishing to explore excellence in leadership.

[SimonNZ]

Far too many books currently on the go at the moment, depending on my mood at any given hour:



Pleasantly surprised at how non 80s jargon and readable Said's Orientalism is.

Also finished another smart and fun novel of Christopher Brookmyre's:

[aligreto]

O'Connor: The Mad Lomasneys and other stories





Frank O'Connor is a renowned Irish writer known for his short story writing and this book is a collection of some of his short stories. It contains wonderful stories. His succinct narrative style is wonderfully effective in portraying the essence of a story. He also had the ability to portray people very well and certainly understood and portrayed the psyche of the people of his time and place.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

O'Connor: The Mad Lomasneys and other stories





Frank O'Connor is a renowned Irish writer known for his short story writing and this book is a collection of some of his short stories. It contains wonderful stories. His succinct narrative style is wonderfully effective in portraying the essence of a story. He also had the ability to portray people very well and certainly understood and portrayed the psyche of the people of his time and place.

Sounds interesting. I will look for a copy.
Reading this book today.

[aligreto]

Reading this book today.

The Idylls of Ireland.