What are you currently reading?

[ritter]

Hello ritter.

Here's the thing; your frame of reference is far, far broader than my own. Still, I believe that in reply to your question what I can impart has value because it's honest and true. Maybe the whole 'Oulipo' school is familiar to you. To me, it doesnt mean shit. And I fully accept that's a fault on my part. But on my second reading of this work it makes more sense. And I think it's great. I really liked it.
Having said that, I can completely understand the viewpoint of those who might consider if contrived and perhaps even tailored to meet some kind of ideal or be noted for making a statement, meeting the criteria in order to further an ideal.
If you do get around to reading this work, do post your thoughts.

Thanks for that. I must really read Perec's book sometime soon....

[NikF]

Does Life: A Users Manual have references to chess in it?

Hey bro. 
Yeah, in the broadest terms it's possible to clearly see Perec has employed a reference to chess via the 'Knight's tour' - that's an integral part of the book I refer to, although I admit not picking up on that aspect until after the fact.

[NikF]

Thanks for that. I must really read Perec's book sometime soon....

You're welcome.
And if/when you do read it, post your thoughts. That would be cool.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Started reading one of the most esteemed German Romantics in literature, Ludwig Tieck.

[steve ridgway]

I'm enjoying this at the moment, quite informative but as with the TV series, Prof Cox is excellent at stimulating a sense of awe and wonder in the reader .

[asin]0007386907[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

^I admire the sense of optimism he conveys.

TD:

[Ken B]

The Brethren
Robert Merle
Translation from the French.

This is a historical novel set in the late 16th century in France, about a family of Huguenots. Florestan would like it.

[Karl Henning]

Gluten-free food isn't healthier for you, new study indicates

Eating gluten-free food isn't necessarily beneficial for your health, a new study has claimed.

The study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, compared the nutrient content and cost of regular and gluten-free food products in the UK.

Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire assessed the nutritional information and costs of the food products by collecting the data from manufacturer and supermarket websites.

While many people nowadays have begun following gluten-free diets or eating a reduced amount of food containing gluten, this may not be a wise course of action.

For those who have medical conditions such as coeliac disease, eating gluten-free foods is essential for their wellbeing.

However, for others, this isn't the case.

According to the researchers, there's no reason why anyone who doesn't have a medical condition affected by the consumption of gluten should be avoiding it altogether.

[bwv 1080]

Gluten-free food isn't healthier for you, new study indicates


According to the researchers, there's no reason why anyone who doesn't have a medical condition affected by the consumption of gluten should be avoiding it altogether. [/i]

But gluten is a Chemical!  The 'researchers' must be stooges of big wheat

[aligreto]

Just finished Robert L Chapman's Ireland





Chapman was interested in two things, namely cycling and photography. He amassed a large and very interesting collection over his lifetime and this book offers some very interesting insights into that collection as well as commentary on things from national events to local beauty spots [interesting to see them then and now].

[ritter]

Interspersing the Drieu La Rochelle novel I mentioned some days ago with these two art-related books:


[asin]2070249476[/asin]
Jean Paulhan (one of the most influential literary critics in France in the 20th century) somehow manages, in the 150 pages of this loving and poetic text, to convey the essence of.Georges Braque's elusive and fascinating art. A beautiful little book.



[asin]207029630X[/asin]
This is my first contact with Francis Ponge, and I must say his prose is not really to my liking; his casual style, in which some obscure terms and—sometimes contrived—wordplays appear relatively often, and his tendency to address the reader directly with the informal "tu",are slightly tiresome to me. And yet, a short homage to the lithographic stone, "Matière et Mémoire", is a delight. I still have to get to the texts dedicated to Braque (the reason I got this book).

[LKB]

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson.

Only a few pages in, but it's already my favorite book concerning my favorite film.

Applauding,

LKB

[ritter]

More art related stuff: Pierre Assouline's biography of legendary art dealer D.-H. Kahnweiler.



Great fun to read (so far—some 50 pages into the book). 

[SimonNZ]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

and

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Damn, that Billy Budd cover image was big! 

[SimonNZ]

[JBS]

How is that? I have two, and am finishing the third, of his Time Traveller's Guide to...series.

[SimonNZ]

How is that? I have two, and am finishing the third, of his Time Traveller's Guide to...series.

First time I've read him, though I want to look at his Time Traveler books at some point. Which did you like best?

This one is deliberately provocative (see title), trying to rehabilitate Edward III's reputation which has diminished with each passing century, by going to the opposite extreme. Its at best only partially successful in convincing me of that thesis, and then only for specific facets, but if you can put that aside its a well written work of popular history on a neglected figure, and provides some clarity to complex events his long reign touched upon, not least of which is the beginning of the Hundred Years War, and is a vivid narrative.

Recommended, but with those warnings.

[JBS]

First time I've read him, though I want to look at his Time Traveler books at some point. Which did you like best?

This one is deliberately provocative (see title), trying to rehabilitate Edward III's reputation which has diminished with each passing century, by going to the opposite extreme. Its at best only partially successful in convincing me of that thesis, and then only for specific facets, but if you can put that aside its a well written work of popular history on a neglected figure, and provides some clarity to complex events his long reign touched upon, not least of which is the beginning of the Hundred Years War, and is a vivid narrative.

Recommended, but with those warnings.

I like the most recent, on the Restoration era, but all three are close enough in style and quality, that the best bet is to pick the era you are most interested in.  It's all details about daily life, so actual events are treated as tangential to the description...

I have read one bio of Edward III. Don't remember who wrote it, but the author was probably from Scotland. He was very unsympathetic to Edward, and vividly so in regards to Scotland.