What are you currently reading?

[Ken B]

Time to grab out Dantes Divine Comedy again 

I thought I was the only one weird enough to reread that.  but can you reread Paradise Lost? I loved PL, an astonishing thing. One of the highlights of decades of reading. But I doubt I'll ever read it a second time.

[kishnevi]

Found a copy of Dante in the library 

Which translation? There seems to have been a few new ones in the last few years.  The one I have is a prose translation.

[Ken B]

"midway upon the course of this our life, I found myself within a gloom dark wood"?

Sounds very 19th century.

Ciardi is good.

[Ken B]

I chose a flashy looking translation of the inferno segment with old English and Hieronymus Bosch art on the cover 

About to meet a girl in ten minutes so I issued it out and ran 

Feeling like ingesting a bit of Dante into my system today/this week

Here's to the second circle!

(Or maybe the 7th ...)

[Parsifal]

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate.

[Crudblud]

James Joyce - Ulysses

640 pages of sheer tedium dressed up in myriad literary styles, linguistic and structural games, references to literature, history, myth, and whatever else. Very clever but impossibly boring.

[bwv 1080]

James Joyce - Ulysses

640 pages of sheer tedium dressed up in myriad literary styles, linguistic and structural games, references to literature, history, myth, and whatever else. Very clever but impossibly boring.

Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time

[Crudblud]

Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time

I think most readers are in agreement with you.

[Ken B]

I think most readers are in agreement with you.

Selection bias.

Its ... worthy of its reputation

I agree, but I suspect I am referring to a different reputation than you are. 

[Crudblud]

Selection bias.

Right, very few people who dislike it would actually bother to say so, either for fear of being considered stupid or contrarian. I also dare say there are quite a few people who would happily proclaim it to be the best novel of the 20th century but have never actually read it. I actually quite enjoy Dubliners and Finnegans Wake (a very fun book to dip into, not so much to read from start to finish), but both the Portrait and Ulysses leave me cold.

[bwv 1080]

Funny, I like Portrait and find Finnegans Wake incomprehensible

[North Star]

I can't imagine anyone not finding Finnegans Wake incomprehensible - not that that should stop everyone from enjoying it, of course.

[Crudblud]

I think the fact that it has taken Joyce scholars decades to decipher any sort of plot from the text is testament enough to its incomprehensibility. I think it's preferable not to approach it as a novel at all, what meaning or characters or stories may or may not be in there doesn't really matter to me, I just like to open it up to a random page and enjoy the style for a little bit before putting it back away.

[bwv 1080]

Ulysses is similar in that you can just read any chapter on a stand-alone basis.  The first time I read it cover to cover, now I will read (or better listen - Joyce seems to work better on audiobook for me) a couple of random chapters from time to time

[BasilValentine]

2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Had heard of it. Saw it in the local thrift store for $.50. I'm 125 pages in and have no idea where it's going but am enjoying it. Various literary scholars, when they aren't screwing one another, are in search of their favorite and apparently reclusive and elusive author.

I read Ulysses to see what all the ballyhoo is about and because I heard the claim that my favorite novel, William Gaddis's The Recognitions, wouldn't have existed without it. (I later discovered that Gaddis only read the first forty pages of Ulysses and then got bored.) I'm glad I read it, but have not joined the fan club.   

[Parsifal]

Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time

I've tried to tackle it more than once. I find the beginning captivating, but about 20% in I hit a brick wall. That's where my Kindle app. says I am currently stalled.

[Karl Henning]

Ulysses is similar in that you can just read any chapter on a stand-alone basis.  The first time I read it cover to cover, now I will read (or better listen - Joyce seems to work better on audiobook for me) a couple of random chapters from time to time

Hmmm, audiobook Ulysses, there is an idea.

[ritter]

It's been a while since I last read anything by Jean Cocteau:


La Difficulté d'être is a collection of musings, reminiscences and reflections, originally published in 1947. Even taking into account the nature of this text, and its author's notoriously narcissistic personality, the incessant use of the word "je" becomes tiresome (I don't recall ever reading a text that uses "je"--or "I", "yo", "io" or "ich" for that matter--so often). Paradoxically though, the book is at its most interesting when Cocteau doesn't write about himself, but about others (e.g. Radiguet or Satie).

In any case, the book does display a certain charme désuet.

[NikF]

It's been a while since I last read anything by Jean Cocteau:


La Difficulté d'être is a collection of musings, reminiscences and reflections, originally published in 1947. Even taking into account the nature of this text, and its author's notoriously narcissistic personality, the incessant use of the word "je" becomes tiresome (I don't recall ever reading a text that uses "je"--or "I", "yo", "io" or "ich" for that matter--so often). Paradoxically though, the book is at its most interesting when Cocteau doesn't write about himself, but about others (e.g. Radiguet or Satie).

In any case, the book does display a certain charme désuet.

So what would you recommend reading by Cocteau?

[Parsifal]

2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Had heard of it. Saw it in the local thrift store for $.50. I'm 125 pages in and have no idea where it's going but am enjoying it. Various literary scholars, when they aren't screwing one another, are in search of their favorite and apparently reclusive and elusive author.

If I had paid $0.50 for it I would still regret the outlay. If I recall correctly, you'll soon get to the section of the book which is basically a laundry list of mutilated bodies discovered in some border town. Insidious because the impression was created that the book would eventually come to some sort of redeeming message, but that never happened.