What are you currently reading?

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

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aligreto

Quote from: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 06:32:41 AM
.... Another one I liked was King Solomon's Mines by Haggard, but again you have to turn a blind eye to a few things. And not mind that the plot is ridiculous!

:laugh:  :laugh: Very true and quite amusing comments.

Biffo

Each year at school we were given a book to read; we weren't examined on it, I think the intention was to prompt us to read further. In the first year we got A Christmas Carol; I did read it but found it heavy going and it was many years before I read any more Dickens. The next year we got King Solomon's Mines followed by Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan.

I read a couple more Rider Haggard novels including She and one whose title I have forgotten but it was about an aged Odysseus embarking on one last adventure to find Helen of Troy, believed to be in Egypt.

I read more Buchan including The Thirty-nine Steps and its sequel Greenmantle. I can't remember much about the latter but the former has been made into a movie at least twice and more recently a television series, suitably sanitized for modern audiences.

AlberichUndHagen

Dumb question perhaps but is that book perhaps the same The 39 Steps that Hitchcock's famous film was based on (and which, to this date, I still haven't seen)?

Ken B

Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on November 01, 2019, 09:07:14 AM
Dumb question perhaps but is that book perhaps the same The 39 Steps that Hitchcock's famous film was based on (and which, to this date, I still haven't seen)?
It is, but you wouldn't know it from their respective plots.

aligreto

Quote from: Biffo on November 01, 2019, 09:04:18 AM
Each year at school we were given a book to read; we weren't examined on it, I think the intention was to prompt us to read further. In the first year we got A Christmas Carol; I did read it but found it heavy going and it was many years before I read any more Dickens. The next year we got King Solomon's Mines followed by Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan.

I read a couple more Rider Haggard novels including She and one whose title I have forgotten but it was about an aged Odysseus embarking on one last adventure to find Helen of Troy, believed to be in Egypt.

I read more Buchan including The Thirty-nine Steps and its sequel Greenmantle. I can't remember much about the latter but the former has been made into a movie at least twice and more recently a television series, suitably sanitized for modern audiences.

Interesting as Greenmantle and She were two that I too read soon after reading their prequels. I was quite young, could not afford to buy books and borrowed them from my local library. Happy days  :)

listener

#9505
Catching up on current history with Brexit Boris
"Keep your hand on the throttle and your eye on the rail as you walk through life's pathway."

Ken B


Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Ken B

Quote from: Florestan on November 01, 2019, 12:18:49 PM
What do you make of it?
I am only at 1/4 through. Not much of a connected narrative, more a collage of scenes from a bad time and place to be alive. I am liking it so far.

Artem

It's a great book, I think. I'd like it to be more widely known.

I had recently finished Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin that I've been meaning to get to for a long time, but had difficulty with locating a copy. Finally, got one in Helsinki. I had very high expectations for it, probably, but overall it was a great novel. Some really strong imagery.

vandermolen

Quote from: Jo498 on November 01, 2019, 02:38:02 AM
It's supposedly one of the "founding" books both of the espionage genre and the trope of an "ordinary guy" getting involved in such stuff (although the latter is older if one casts a somewhat wider net, The prisoner of Zelda would already be an earlier example). As you are probably aware, it also served as an inspiration for quite a bit of the Tintin adventure "The black island".

No I didn't know! As a Tintin fanatic I find that very interesting. Thank you.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#9511
Quote from: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 03:57:27 AM
Nostalgia trip; I remember reading that one as a young man.
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Ken B

Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?
Unasked: are they worth buying.
I never knew you were an MP!

;)

Biffo

Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?

According to Wikipedia Buchan wrote six Richard Hannay adventures. I definitely read two and vaguely remember reading a third (The Three Hostages, possibly) - I also remember there was diminishing returns with The 39 Steps being easily the best. If you have it give Salute to Adventurers a try.

vandermolen

Quote from: Biffo on November 02, 2019, 07:00:21 AM
According to Wikipedia Buchan wrote six Richard Hannay adventures. I definitely read two and vaguely remember reading a third (The Three Hostages, possibly) - I also remember there was diminishing returns with The 39 Steps being easily the best. If you have it give Salute to Adventurers a try.
Thanks. Will do.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?

The only other Buchan book that I have read is Greenmantle. I would say that they are of their time but probably worth reading if one accepts them for what they are,  a light read.

SimonNZ

taking a vacation from the to-read pile with this:



and am thoroughly enjoying it

AlberichUndHagen


SimonNZ


Ken B

Florestan wanted to know what I thought of Grossman's Life and Fate, which I just finished.

I am going to quote a couple Amazon reviews that capture my reaction pretty well between them.

QuoteBut then there are the myriad characters, most of whom are incompletely drawn. This reader found himself returning time and again to the 18 page list of chief characters to keep track of who is who.

QuoteAn incredible look, on a very intimate level, at life in Stalin's Russia. This is how World War II looked to individual Russians on a day to day basis. I've seen nothing else like it. Fair warning: it can be hard to keep track of all the characters. Also, this is not a conventional novel with a linear plot. It's more like a series of short stories or vignettes. But everything is tied together in an over-arching structure.

I still, after 35 years, remember some characters in War and Peace. I won't remember many of those in this book, and that puts a ceiling on my affection for it. But I agree with the second comment too.

Goya and Picasso both painted war in Spain. I prefer Goya. I remember faces from Goya, but Guernica is a great painting too.