What are you currently reading?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Reading Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just finished "Silver Blaze".

[NikF]

Reading Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just finished "Silver Blaze".

Good stuff.

[NikF]

I've no idea what this will be like.

[aligreto]

I've no idea what this will be like.

I spent a lot of my younger years reading Hardy. I always enjoyed reading the combination of both hard nosed realism set in idealistic settings. I hope that you enjoy it.

[North Star]

"Landscapes are repetitions. On a simple train ride I uselessly and restlessly waver between my inattention to the landscape and my inattention to the book that would amuse me if I were someone else." Reading Pessoa on the train.

[Draško]

Just starting.

[NikF]

I spent a lot of my younger years reading Hardy. I always enjoyed reading the combination of both hard nosed realism set in idealistic settings. I hope that you enjoy it.

Cheers, mate.

[André]

About halfway through this:



Lovingly and painstakingly researched, superbly written book. It's hard to realize Munch's star status among conductors in his 'golden period' (1940-1960). I had always been intrigued by him being such an intensely private person as well as a diffident, courteous, elegant and unshowy podium presence, even as his concerts and recordings radiated so much passion and brilliance. What I was not aware of is the sheer love he elicited among musicians, whether in Paris (OSCC), London (LPO), NY or Boston. They loved him to pieces.

The book sheds a very interesting light on the inner transformation of the alsatian conductor from a german-oriented man (he enlisted in the german army in WWI and his musical gods were all german) to a total rejection of Germany during WWII (he never returned after 1939, even though he had been concermaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus for many years). And of course, petty politics were at play in France after 1945. Conductors Paul Paray and André Cluytens come in for some tough criticism.

Fascinating. Lucky Bostonians !

[Crudblud]

I've been reading the English translation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, an unfortunate movie tie-in cover with Sean Connery's fake monk face on it, but whatever. I've read Foucault's Pendulum in translation before and enjoyed it, as I am enjoying this one. I really like Eco's meticulously researched settings and kind of pulpy stories, it makes me think of a more straight-laced Pynchon in some ways. One of these days my Italian will be good enough to read his stuff in the original.

[Karl Henning]

[...] an unfortunate movie tie-in cover with Sean Connery's fake monk face on it, but whatever.

Unfortunate, but in this imperfect world, unavoidable, I fear.

[Ken B]

Unfortunate, but in this imperfect world, unavoidable, I fear.

My copy of Tom Jones shows a guy in really tight pants ...

[Papy Oli]

My copy of Tom Jones shows a guy in really tight pants ...

it's not unusual... 

[Sergeant Rock]

it's not unusual... 

Sarge

[Bogey]

[ritter]

Revisiting Stefan Zweig's Die Welt von Gestern ("The World of Yerterday"), which I had stated many years ago, but had to abandon due to family issues that required my full attention at the time.

[asin]3866478992[/asin]
The book, full of nostalgia, is extremely engaging and beautifully written. Still (at least at the point I'm at now—some 50 pages into it), Zweig's melancholic description of a bygone world of privilege, stability, progress and high culture seems to have been generated in a sort of "vacuum", as those who didn't  enjoy those privileges or lived away from the cultural beacon that was turn-of-the-century Vienna are completely ignored. This is all the more surprising as the book was written in Zweig's Brazilian exile, where his own personal conditions were less propitious, and the fact that  segments of society with a sense of entitlement were coexisting with the disadvantaged and destitute could not have escaped the author's notice.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Slowly but steadily continuing my progress through the unabridged Les Misérables. About halfway through both the volume III (Marius) and thus the whole work in general. That is, assuming all the volumes are about the same length. Hugo is such a wonderful writer, I could quote him all day.

[André]

Slowly but steadily continuing my progress through the unabridged Les Misérables. About halfway through both the volume III (Marius) and thus the whole work in general. That is, assuming all the volumes are about the same length. Hugo is such a wonderful writer, I could quote him all day.

That one's a page turner ! Except there are so many pages to turn, one wonders if it will ever come to an end  . Still, the grandfather of all socio-historic sagas, and magnificently written to boot.

[SimonNZ]

Tom Holland - Rubicon: The Triumph And Tragedy Of The Roman Republic

[Ken B]

Tom Holland - Rubicon: The Triumph And Tragedy Of The Roman Republic

An excellent book. Even better is his In The Shadow of the Sword

[Bogey]

Good stuff; I've got all the Bond books on my Kindle.  Fun ride.

Picking off about one a year. Moonraker was fantastic and makes me scratch my head of why the movie was the way it was.