What are you currently reading?

[Ken B]

I finally broke down/took the plunge/got around to this

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I am enjoying it so far. Is it weird to call such a book beautifully written? It really is, Gibbon-like, elegant, clear, flowing.

[SimonNZ]

Its my first time reading Tale Of Two Cities, which has some of his best descriptive passages of time and place, alongside some pretty standard potboiler characters and characterization.

I remember liking Bleak House very much. Great Expectations probably remains my favorite. Haven't read Our Mutual Friend, but intend to.

Has anyone read American Notes? I've been considering that one recently, along with some of his other nonfiction.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

Our Mutual Friend is definitely the best. Fitting that his last finished novel should be his greatest.

[SimonNZ]

Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?

For example, the often mentioned point, more and more morally grey characters. Best example is probably Bradley Headstone, who despite his unpleasantness evokes sympathy in the reader, showing great skill of mature writer. In fact I find it hard to find single one pure evil character in the book who doesn't have at least a fleeting moment of sympathy. Silas Wegg seems a most jovial fellow when he's not scheming (as noted by G.K. Chesterton) and IMO Rogue Riderhood as well, who is funny as hell despite being probably the most "evil" character in the book and he gets his spotlights of sympathy as well, and a kind of begrudging acknowledgement from his skill in plotting. And the other one of the book's two heroines as well as of the heroes are not always the most pleasant people to be around, at least initially. Now, complex characters are not a new thing at all in literature - those have existed pretty much as long as literature has existed in the world but Dickens in general has often been accused of flat, black-and white characters which don't develop much. Sure there were some exceptions here and there (Rosa Dartle and James Steerforth in Copperfield, Pip, Estella, Magwitch and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, Miss Wade and Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit) but many can basically be divided in the league "the character agrees with the author" and "the character doesn't agree with the author" and have relatively few redeeming qualities. Of course this also depends on how the reader interprets the characters.

The plot handling is remarkably strong in Our Mutual Friend, many small points in the book are found out to have relevance later.

Hope I didn't spoil too much, the best part is reading the book and finding out all the cool things yourself and making your own reflections.

[SimonNZ]

Wow - great information. Thanks!

It also highlights the points I had to deduct from Tale Of Two Cities for the three or four ultimately bland pure-of-heart characters.

Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.

Hmm, that may have had something to do with Victorian standards - about striving towards "perfection", in the Victorian sense of the word. In Our Mutual Friend there is a minor character who clearly suffers from alcoholism and he is not handled as understandingly as modern society probably would - especially as he isn't shown beating anyone while drunk or anything.

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[Karl Henning]

As informative and enjoyable as I had expected.

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[Henk]

Started reading this book.



It's a historial thriller, in Dutch. About the Dutch colonial past in Indonesia. First pages truely great. Going to be a long read, since it's a thick book and I am a slow reader, but might read longer each time I dive into it.

[Henk]

Gonna try to read this book by Derrida, parallel and related to my course about the design of technology (and society and technology).



"In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology—fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling."

[ritter]

Starting Hermann Broch's Demeter:

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This is the third and final (unfinished) version of Broch's Bergroman ("Mountain Novel"), after The Seducer and The Spell (neither of which I have read). Broch tells the story of the apparition of irrational forces in a small alpine village (as a parable of the ascent of nazism).

I very much enjoyed (years ago) The Sleepwalkers and his essay Hugo von Hofmannsthal and his Time, but I remain intimidated by his magnum opus The Death of Virgil, which stands unread in my bookshelves since...ever. 

[SimonNZ]

^I've also had The Death Of Virgil sitting on my shelves unread for far too long.

CR:



Compelling, if rather unstructured, mix of politics, history and travel narrative surrounding the troubled and tragic stories of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I started reading Les Miserables, this time unabridged. This may take some time.

[Ken B]

Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain

Never read before this actually.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain

Never read before this actually.

That was the first book from Twain that I read.

[Ken B]

That was the first book from Twain that I read.

It is for a lot of people, and the second for most of the rest! It's an old hole in my reading. Quite funny so far.

[NikF]

I'm rereading 'Princess Mary' from this in anticipation of rewatching 'Un cœur en hiver.'

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[bwv 1080]

Most SciFi is set tens or hundreds of years in the future, this is set 6 million years or so from now

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Most SciFi is set tens or hundreds of years in the future

Of course there is that one particular scifi franchise which takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Yes, I noted the word "most" in your post, just messing around.