What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

I've Just finished reading David Ossman's Fighting Clowns of Hollywood With Laffs by The Firesign Theatre memoir. (I had started to read it before my stroke, and only picked it back up a couple of weeks ago. Eye-openingly enlightening and (as fully expected) superbly entertaining. Strongly recommended, especially if you need something to lift you out of the COVID-winding-down funk. Pairs well with Philip Proctor's Where's My Fortune Cookie?

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading this, at last. (I read it in fairly short order when I first purchased it. It is the same author whose poem "When" I recently set. Book available here, if you wish.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Dinosaur! (Knowledge Encyclopedias).
Fun read. Sexy illustrations.  Nice discussion about evolution.

[Spotted Horses]

Alice Munro, Dear Life



I have a great affinity for Munro's writing. I purchased a collection of her short stories, perhaps 10 years ago, and since reading them have been tracking down the individual volumes. These are stories without plot twists, gimmicks, just slices of life presented with grim honesty, often set in a Canada which feels like a backward hinterland about to bloom into multicultural prosperity. I think comparisons between Munro and Chekhov are appropriate.

[DavidW]

My favorite Hardy is Jude the Obscure.

Same!  Jude the Obscure is one of my favorite novels.

[DizzyD]

What seems to be a pretty good edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:

[aligreto]

Kafka: Description of a Struggle & Other stories.





Anyone who has read Kafka is aware of his thought process but reading this collection of stories one is transported to almost another dimension. Here we enter a phantasmagorical world; an alternative reality.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Schopenhauer: A Biography. David E. Cartwright.



 

[Florestan]

Schopenhauer: A Biography. David E. Cartwright.

 

I'm a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) yet Schopenhauer is one of my philosophical heroes.

Have you read this?



Highly recommended.

[Ganondorf]

First read.

Also about halfway through Zola's L'assommoir now. Whenever I go to the library, I just can't put it down. It's awesome. Maybe I should have borrowed it, despite having way too many books already going on at the same time.

[DizzyD]

I love Old and Middle English. I've been reading here and there in this edition of the poems of the "Gawain Poet":

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I'm a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) yet Schopenhauer is one of my philosophical heroes.

Have you read this?



Highly recommended.

Yes, I love both the books.
Schopenhauer influenced Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Leo Tolstoy,  Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, etc. After reading S for first time, Wagner had to abandon the work he was working on, and his subsequent works were greatly influenced by S. 

If Darwin had published the Origin of Species a few years earlier, it would have massively changed the final edition of S's WWR.

[aligreto]

Priestly: Low Notes on a High Level





This is a light read. It is also quite amusing, charming and entertaining. It is filled with larger than life characters and is narrated by quite a deadpan and self deprecating voice. A world famous composer has just finished his tenth symphony. He sends the score to the conductor of the English Broadcasting Orchestra. This conductor character rather reminds me of a Thomas Beecham character. While perusing the score it is discovered that an obbligato passage is written for a unique base bass instrument which must be played by the inventor. This instrument was invented by an inventor friend of the composer who happens to live in London. However, when the inventor is contacted he refuses, point blank, to have anything to do with the plans. And it all revolves around a game of cards! Wonderful stuff!

[LKB]

Just started Stephen Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. I've had high expectations since reading his first book, and so far, so good...

[aligreto]

André Gide: La Symphonie Pastorale





This is a short novel in two parts. In Part I a Pastor is called to the house of a dying woman. There he finds a girl, a niece of the dead woman, who is blind and has basically been abandoned in surroundings of dire poverty. The girl is non communicative and helpless. The Pastor decides to take her home with him rather than let her end up in the workhouse. The Pastor is married with children. There is much resistance from most of his family to the introduction and integration of the girl into the family circle, particularly from his wife. The Pastor succeeds in helping the girl by educating her and she is finally accepted by his children but not by his wife. The Pastor succeeds in transforming the quality of life of the girl but ultimately faces the dilemma that he has fallen in love with the girl. The outcome of the story is teased out in Part II to its tragic conclusion. I enjoyed reading the story.

[Spotted Horses]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.



A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.



A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.

Nice. The movie is excellent too. I have visited Marquez's house in Cartagena a few times.

[SimonNZ]

Nice. The movie is excellent too. I have visited Marquez's house in Cartagena a few times.

Huh. I was unaware of this. Thanks for the heads-up.



And directed by Francisco Rosi, who made that great film of Carmen.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Huh. I was unaware of this. Thanks for the heads-up.



And directed by Francisco Rosi, who made that great film of Carmen.

You will like it. His movie adaptation of Christ Stopped At Eboli by Carlo Levi is great as well.

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading chapter VI of our Cato's present work-in-progress.