What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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Haffner

Quote from: Anne on November 13, 2007, 03:06:17 PM
I am reading Haydn A Creative Life in Music written by Karl Geiringer in collaboration with Irene Geiringer.  The oversize paperback (370 pages) is very well written and enjoyable.   




A terrific book! I had a used copy, but I had to get a new one immediately. That is a great reference book on the String Quartets, Symphonies, and choral work as well.

Bogey

Quote from: Haffner on November 18, 2007, 10:52:30 AM



A terrific book! I had a used copy, but I had to get a new one immediately. That is a great reference book on the String Quartets, Symphonies, and choral work as well.

Great book.  Reads like a Dickens' novel at points.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Haffner

I think the only thing that astounded me about that Haydn book is when the author attempted to portray the Emperor Quartet's "other three movements" as being very average.

There is nothing average about the Emperor Quartet. I never heard a Mozart SQ which topped it, not even k387.

Danny

Re-reading through the poems of the finest American poet:

Lethevich



As neat as ever - more text than pics, thank god :P
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Bogey




An off-shoot from my recent read of To Kill a Mockingbird.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Papageno


Bogey

Along with my Capote read above (bits and pieces seems to be the way to go on this one), about to crack open



Not familiar with this cat's work at all.  Was perusing through a Barnes and Noble bookstore and could not seem to locate something that grabbed me by the shirt.  So I dialed up a friend who has read more than me twothreefold and asked for three suggestions.  This as one of them, even though he is yet to read his.  We'll both start this evening.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

12tone.

I'm currently reading 'The Diner'.  There are a lot of great characters.  Plot development has been good.  It's a serial that has been going on for apparently a few years now.  Not many people read it apparently. 

Danny

A Treasury of Russian Verse edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky.

karlhenning

I'm alternately reading through Washington Irving's Tales from the Alhambra, and this paperback reissue:



Notice that? When it first came out in hardcover, the title was:  Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall.

Now, with the paperback edition, the subtitle is a more chaste and becoming: A History  8)

The Irving is excellent, unfailingly charming.

The Horowitz has its excellent and fascinating facts, and its occasional groan-making interpretations.

Haffner

Quote from: karlhenning on November 27, 2007, 01:43:03 PM
I'm alternately reading through Washington Irving's Tales from the Alhambra, and this paperback reissue:



Notice that? When it first came out in hardcover, the title was:  Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall.

Now, with the paperback edition, the subtitle is a more chaste and becoming: A History  8)

The Irving is excellent, unfailingly charming.

The Horowitz has its excellent and fascinating facts, and its occasional groan-making interpretations.



Hey, that sounds good!

I'm rereading the Solomon book on Beethoven. I had been really turned off by the dubious nature of the pschoanalytical approach of Solomon, but upon 2nd reading I'm looking past that and liking the book better (except for the psychoanalytical parts  ;)!)

Kullervo

Finished The Magic Mountain and started this yesterday:



longears


Problematic but an interesting read.  Hard to discern spiritual truth through the intellect alone--like making love, baking cookies, throwing a pot.

Haffner

Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 04:07:38 AM
Finished The Magic Mountain and started this yesterday:







This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.
Whom did the translation, Corey?

Kullervo

#715
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:04:51 AM



This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.
Whom did the translation, Corey?

This is a recent translation by Walter Kaufmann. The language is not the pseudo-King's English I was half-expecting to encounter. :)

Florestan

Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:04:51 AM



This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.

That's most intriguing. How do you manage to reconcile Nietzsche with Christ?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Haffner

Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:09:08 AM
That's most intriguing. How do you manage to reconcile Nietzsche with Christ?




Please re-read, Nietzsche's portrayal of Jesus Christ in Der Antichristlich. It's one of the most beautiful portrayals in the history of literature, and had alot to do with my finally embracing the Catholic faith I was baptised into.

As you probably know, Florestan, the real title of what is called "The Antichrist" is the "Anti-Christian". Nietzsche mostly knew about the Lutheran religion he grew up with (his father was a minister), and that is the sect of Christianity he attacks most in Der Antichristlich.


Haffner

Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 05:08:42 AM
This is a recent translation by Walter Kaufmann. The language is not the pseudo-King's English I was half-expected to encounter. :)





Corey, I found the R.J. Hollingdale to be a better overall translation. Kaufmann, in my opinion, was better at providing commentary than anything else. Also, if you haven't already checked out Nietzsche's biography, Hollingdale's work in the subject is the best introduction and more.

Kullervo

#719
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:15:03 AM




Corey, I found the R.J. Hollingdale to be a better overall translation. Kaufmann, in my opinion, was better at providing commentary than anything else. Also, if you haven't already checked out Nietzsche's biography, Hollingdale's work in the subject is the best introduction and more.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I am relatively new to Nietzsche, having only read Beyond Good and Evil before this.