What are you currently reading?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

So far Royal Highness has proven a very enjoyable read. My favorite characters so far are the dry-witted minister Knobelsdorff and naturally Imma and Samuel Spoelmann. Imma is hilarious with her excellent sarcasm. I love especially the part where she discusses with Klaus Heinrich the steamer Imma and her father had crossed the ocean in. Imma says the ship had five storeys to which Klaus Heinrich asks: "Counting from below?" In the blink of an eye Imma answers: "Of course. Six, counting from above." 

[Todd]

A brief (<90 text pages) thesis by David Nicolas at the Naval Postgraduate School about China's proposed $900 billion+ "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which, if completed and successful, could force a major geopolitical realignment, and significantly reduce the strategic advantage the US has due to its overwhelming naval superiority.  The author is more sanguine about the implications of the project than I am and spends basically no time covering the implications of the shift from sea-based to overland shipping, relying on economic efficiency as the sole reason, though the financial and economic interconnectedness of the projects exposes vulnerabilities that other great powers might be able to exploit if needed.  When I see such eye watering amounts of money, I always wonder how much ends up lining the pockets of various people.  This subject is way too big for one brief thesis and will take decades to play out, so more reading will be needed, and this serves as really just a primer on the topic.  It's well enough written as far as theses go.

[Christo]

Count Lev Tolstoy: The death of Ivan Ilyich, Kreutzer Sonata, other later stories
+ plus his religious writings ('The Lion and the Honeycomb') as edited by A.N. Wilson in his better days.

[Ken B]

The third in a series of French readers, this a selection of short stories.

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Coming soon: Bel-Ami en francais.

[Drasko]

[ritter]

Well, Draško...you're watching a film by one of my favourite directors ever (if not my very favourite), and reading a book by an author I find fascinating... What next? listen to some Boulez, perhaps? 

Regards,

[Karl Henning]

Just finished re-reading (this morning) Foundation and Empire.  The first volume (arguably) sets up the The-Foundation-is-inevitable theme;  the wild exogenous variable in the second volume therefore makes for a more engaging narrative.  In ways that are not crucial to that superior narrative, the second volume also (I can see in this re-reading) amply justifies my friend Charles's remark, "I re-read it [the Foundation trilogy] and was disgusted at how sexist it is."

I suppose the argument would be, that the entrenched sexism in society required slow, gradual remediation.  But where we might observe that the scripts in The Twilight Zone (e.g.) do not have much in the way of interesting female characters, somehow the arrant condescension is more in-the-bone in Foundation and Empire.  It is possibly even more vexatious because the science-fiction genre is so often all about telling us how wonderful the future is, and better than the present.  Well, of course, I shall go on and complete the series nonetheless.

[Drasko]

Well, Draško...you're watching a film by one of my favourite directors ever (if not my very favourite), and reading a book by an author I find fascinating... What next? listen to some Boulez, perhaps? 

Regards,

I've been reading it very slowly, couple of chapters per day. Excellent book, bit severe at times, but still relevant.
Haven't read much Adorno prior, just a cursory read through Dialectics of Enlightenment, to which I plan to give proper attention at some future date.
For Boulez keep an eye on the listening thread 

[ritter]

I've been reading it very slowly, couple of chapters per day. Excellent book, bit severe at times, but still relevant.
Haven't read much Adorno prior, just a cursory read through Dialectics of Enlightenment, to which I plan to give proper attention at some future date.
For Boulez keep an eye on the listening thread 

I've seen your listening today! Great! Even if Structures is IMHO a really tough nut to crack. 

Yes, Minima Moralia is an excellent book, and one which--despite its severity (very well chosen word!  )--is approachable and has a poetic beauty to it which is hard to describe (for me at least).

I have read quite a bit of Adorno, but mainly the shorter essay stuff, as I do not have the philosophical training to approach the large works like the Aesthetic Theory (an impossible read as far as I am concerned) or the Negative Dialectics. A very demanding author, in any case, with a style which often seems impenetrable, but which once you've managed to decipher it, yields many rewards, and that I find immensely appealing.

Regards,

[Florestan]

« Muchacho, no te metas en dibujos, sino haz lo que ese señor te manda: sigue tu canto llano y no te metas en contrapuntos, que se suelen quebrar de sotiles. »

Where is this quote extracted from, Rafael? It reminds me of Loaysa from El Celoso extremeño.

[ritter]

Where is this quote extracted from, Rafael? It reminds me of Loaysa from El Celoso extremeño.

You got the author right, Andrei...bravo! But not the book. It's from chapter XXVI of the second part of Don Quixote, as adapted  (slightly) by Manuel de Falla for his El retablo de Maese Pedro. Kind of cool, don't you think? 

Un abrazo,

[Florestan]

You got the author right, Andrei...bravo! But not the book. It's from chapter XXVI of the second part of Don Quixote, as adapted  (slightly) by Manuel de Falla for his El retablo de Maese Pedro. Kind of cool, don't you think? 

Muy cool! 

Un abrazo,

Likewise! 

[vandermolen]

Last book I read was by A Anatoli (Kuznetsov): 'Babi-Yar' before my visit to Kyiv. Now my daughter is reading it. It is one of the few books that I have read more than once.

[North Star]

I'll be reading these when they arrive..

      

[Florestan]

Thomas S. Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (in Romanian translation)

[Ken B]

I'll be reading these when they arrive..

Have I recommended Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes?

[Florestan]

I'll be reading these when they arrive..

     

I have the complete published Rilke and Pessoa poems (plus The Book of Disquiet) in Romanian translation. Exquisite.

 

[North Star]

Have I recommended Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes?

You've mentioned it before, I think. Added to my list now.

[kishnevi]

I'll be reading these when they arrive..

     

Did you ever read Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet? He draws on Cavafy's poems, especially The Gods Abandon Antony.

TD



Masterfully snarkful look at how England is both a wonderful place to live yet falling apart at the cultural seams (in Bryson's view).
Including the English language.  This book will delight any denizen of Cato's Grammar Grumbles.

[North Star]

Did you ever read Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet? He draws on Cavafy's poems, especially The Gods Abandon Antony.

No, I haven't.