What are you currently reading?

[ritter]

Arrived a couple of days ago from the US:

[asin]1421413450[/asin]

The book has chapters on Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel de Yturri, José-Maria de Heredia and Ramón Frenandez, plus shorter sections on tangential issues. An interesting and pleasant read, although at times I get the impression that Mr. Gallo is prone to overinterpretation...

[Drasko]

Also, in a strike of luck managed today to pick up a copy of Huysmans À Rebours in Serbian translation from a street seller for equivalent of one euro. Been looking for it for some time since it is out of print and asking price for used copies is generally much bigger.

[Ken B]

Martial, Epigrams

I could have managed without your embrace,
darling Chloë, and without your face,
and without your breasts and hair and hands,
your neck, your legs, your eyes, your shoulders and – it's too long to pass each part in review –
I could have managed without all of you.

[toledobass]

Puntarella salad

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Robert schumann biography by John Worthen. I laughed at the way Schumann describes his hangovers, such as "afternoon hangover", "wonderful hangover" and the real gem: " an iron hammer in the head".

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it. And he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased. Almost as bad as permanently disfiguring a student for snitching DA out or almost killing a student for trying to take points from them or using spells into students without provocation or because they asked too many questions.

Thinking of reading some Cervantes as well.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Reading Hunchback by Hugo. Still extremely well-written novel.

[Mookalafalas]

My little dip into fantasy with the Amber books was so pleasant I picked up a book I hadn't read by the only other fantasy writer I like.  I don't know if Ambercrombie's stuff is really considered fantasy.  Mythical middle ages type setting, but with all the brutality, ignorance, suffering and lawlessness left in.  The main characters are generally terrible people, but some are making some feeble attempts to be less so.  Also plenty violent and strangely fun.  This is not as good as his earlier books, IMO, but I still sat up half the night finishing it.

[North Star]

Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it.

Don't worry, later on you will find out that Dumbledore did some other vile stuff, too. Whether or not his actions during Harry's life are justified by what would happen if Voldy would have absolute power, you'll have to judge for yourself, I guess.
(and Slytherins had won the cup for a few years in a row, mostly thanks to Snape. . .)

And he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased.

Now there's a paradox. And wrong in any case, they all deserved points for what each got them for, as surely as they deserved to have some taken away for some of the things they did.

[Bogey]

Reading Hunchback by Hugo. Still extremely well-written novel.

Love that illustration.  What is the source?

[North Star]

Love that illustration.  What is the source?

Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg

[Bogey]

Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg

Thanks!

[Bogey]

I guess the original is an ink wash.

[Jo498]

I was rather disappointed by "Red Country". Seems like a lot of missed chances (and some twists for twists sake). I think overall Abercrombie is a little overhyped in Fantasy circles. He is pretty good but very reliant on brutality and shock value and the books are about as realistic or plausible as modern action movies, in fact a lot of them seems to be modelled after modern action movies. (There is hilarious review/trashing of "Heroes" on Goodreads or somewhere else pointing out how completely clueless the author is on military history, of course a feature he shares with most other fantasy stuff out there.)
This may be nitpicking but for me it gives them a thoroughly modern feel and I miss the "otherworldly" fantastic mood.

[Mookalafalas]

I was rather disappointed by "Red Country". Seems like a lot of missed chances (and some twists for twists sake). I think overall Abercrombie is a little overhyped in Fantasy circles. He is pretty good but very reliant on brutality and shock value and the books are about as realistic or plausible as modern action movies, in fact a lot of them seems to be modelled after modern action movies. (There is hilarious review/trashing of "Heroes" on Goodreads or somewhere else pointing out how completely clueless the author is on military history, of course a feature he shares with most other fantasy stuff out there.)
This may be nitpicking but for me it gives them a thoroughly modern feel and I miss the "otherworldly" fantastic mood.

   Red Country has a formulaic story compared to the other books of his I've read. In fact, the overall feel is that of a western, and the trajectory reminds me of Larry McMurtry.  He is well aware of it, the book is dedicated to Clint Eastwood.  If you read history, there is nothing of "shock value" in the brutality.  Red Country is, if anything, sanitized.  I don't read much fantasy, but his is the only fantasy that I've encountered that has any actual grasp of how politics used to affect human lives.  He has a muscular prose style, IMO, and lots of sharp lines and even insights.  However, he mixes modern idiom into the dialogue in a rather random fashion, which sometimes strikes me as awkward. 

[Ken B]

Al, you'll be hip deep in Poul Anderson by Easter.

[Mookalafalas]

Al, you'll be hip deep in Poul Anderson by Easter.

  Uh...I doubt it. As I recall, that fits into the 99.3% of fantasy that I can't read. 

  TD:
   today I was working on Alfred Einstein's Mozart bio. I've been nibbling at it off and on for a couple of months. I'm about half way through.

[Bogey]

[NikF]

 'Balcony in the Forest' - Julien Gracq.

A dreamer floats through life, happily in denial (in part, firmly reinforced by encounters with a nymph) in the face of encroaching war.

[Artem]

I think Gracq is a very interesting writer. I've only ready his Château d'Argol, but I liked it a lot.