What are you currently reading?

[Brian]

Simon and Ken are making me nostalgic. Lisa Jardine was the chair of my department in graduate school, and taught one of my classes. She was absolutely brilliant and gave flawless crystalline seminar talks, but wore her brilliance (and her insane schedule, also hosting a radio show and running the UK IVF authority) very lightly. Wonderfully silly and fun. Lisa enticed me into a year of close study of 1600s English philosophical thought - a year from which she disappeared early, sadly, due to the first appearance of the cancer which killed her much much later on. She arranged for me to have a very picky thesis adviser who hadn't taken on any students in a decade. But she also made me try a Scotch egg and took photos of my face tasting it, and she was simply outraged that I would arrive from Texas without any cowboy boots, and continually threatened that if I didn't buy myself some, she'd have to buy them herself. Her own pair was painted turquoise. Even after the cancer, I don't remember ever seeing her when she wasn't grinning like a little kid.

[JBS]

Became curious about Irons's avatar. Which led to this
http://spenceralley.blogspot.com/2018/04/glamorous-life-and-early-death-of.html

[SimonNZ]

What wonderful memories, Brian. Thanks for sharing them!

I also have Jardine's book Going Dutch at home waiting to be read, so I've moved that to near the top of the pile.

[JBS]

Christmas reading

[steve ridgway]

Christmas reading

That sounds interesting,  I hadn't heard of it before. Do be sure to pay attention to any Tarot related coincidences around you - numbers, shapes, meanings, scenes resembling the images - a Tarot related novel was one of the things that opened my eyes to it.

[Omicron9]

Currently reading the new Chopin biography by Alan Walker and totally diggin' it.

[asin]0374159068[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend

Yay!

[Ken B]

Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend

Fine reading both of them. OMF is on my reread list, it was the Dickens I liked most.

[Ken B]

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Mario Vargas Llosa

A fabulous and hilarious book, certain to enrage the resident scolds.
Recommended for Florestan though.

[SimonNZ]

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Mario Vargas Llosa

A fabulous and hilarious book, certain to enrage the resident scolds.
Recommended for Florestan though.

Haven't read the book but love the film of that.

[zamyrabyrd]

This was a lucky gift, that I wouldn't have necessarily bought for myself. From a review:

History as it's supposed to be told: true and thrilling.

History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism.

The things you've never learned about our past will shock you. Miracles and Massacres is history as you've never heard it told. It's incredible events that you never knew existed. And it's stories so important and relevant to today that you won't have to ask, Why didn't they teach me this?

[Ken B]

Haven't read the book but love the film of that.

Yes, it's excellent. Saw it 25 years ago, and finally got around to reading the book!

[pjme]

I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.



I started Annie Proulx ' Barkskins (2016) ... translated.

[Florestan]

I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.

I'll gladly grant you Stendhal and Balzac --- but Sue? In what respect are his swashbuckling fictions superior to the sentimentality of Paul and Virginie? Not to mention that "old fashioned" is a very good shorthand for "elegant and refined". 

[pjme]

Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!

[Florestan]

Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!

I actually like Sue. 

[Draško]

[Ken B]

I actually like Sue. 

Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?

[Florestan]

Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?

I've started reading it in my teens, loved it, but never finished the whole thing. I do remember it's about a Rudolph count chasing his low-class love all around Paris (long before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann made it a modern metropolis, mind you!). Sort of a second-rate Victor Hugo and a first-rate Paul Feval. --- so yes, in my book it's good, very good (just think of it --- the Paris of Paganini, Rossini, Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Herz --- truly the misterious one!)

NB: Me likes both Sue and (Hugo and Feval).