What are you currently reading?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Just picked up a copy of Louise Glück's "Poems 1962-2012" to read.

PD

[steve ridgway]

Fifty Shades of Grey

[SimonNZ]

Fifty Shades of Grey

Verdict?


TD: Finished:



currently on the go:

[Mandryka]

[steve ridgway]

Verdict?

Half way through Fifty Shades of Grey it's very easy reading, a transparent writing style that conveys the story clearly with no attempt to impress the reader with sophisticated use of language or references. I'm finding it interesting to learn about the different sexual practices and attitudes, what the attraction is, why people might enjoy them, and the general idea that one's preconceptions and conditioning might have made one reject something as unpleasant or disgusting when in fact when one tries it, it might actually turn out to be rather enjoyable. I doubt I'll be adopting either character as a role model but it's making me think about where I agree or disagree with them and what my own position might be.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Schrodinger.

[Florestan]

Schrodinger.

What's his view of it?

[steve ridgway]

What's his view of it?

It changed while he was looking.

[Florestan]

It changed while he was looking.

The cat was dead while being alive... or was it viceversa? 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

What's his view of it?

Pretty much the world according to Upanishad, IMO.
Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.
I am in the middle of the book, and I wonder if he talks about ideality/physicality of time.

[steve ridgway]

Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.

I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.    Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD

[SimonNZ]

I've had that on the shelves for a while waiting to be read. I'll be very interested to know what you make of it.

I got it after reading an essay by Geoff Dyer on why its one of his favorite books. He highlights the skill of the historical/political analysis and how applicable and insightful it is for events of later years.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.

Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.

[steve ridgway]

Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.

This is good. From a scientific point of view anyway - I've had my fill of modern conceptual art.

[Brian]

Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.    Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD

I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin." 

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Moliere.

[steve ridgway]

Half way through Fifty Shades of Grey it's very easy reading, a transparent writing style that conveys the story clearly with no attempt to impress the reader with sophisticated use of language or references. I'm finding it interesting to learn about the different sexual practices and attitudes, what the attraction is, why people might enjoy them, and the general idea that one's preconceptions and conditioning might have made one reject something as unpleasant or disgusting when in fact when one tries it, it might actually turn out to be rather enjoyable. I doubt I'll be adopting either character as a role model but it's making me think about where I agree or disagree with them and what my own position might be.

The remaining half of Fifty Shades of Grey didn't teach me any more. It turned into more of a romance and ended abruptly, making it clear this was part one of a trilogy. It was OK but didn't leave me desperate to buy the next instalment. The wife (who hasn't finished it yet) or I may or may not continue with it at some point (it's cheaper to buy the individual books on Kindle than the whole trilogy as a single volume). On the whole I'm more inclined to re-read Colin Wilson's fifty year old novel The God of the Labyrinth which has a more interesting and unpredictable (if unbelievable) story while attempting a serious investigation into the nature of the sexual impulse and how it might be used to enhance one's general life experience.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin." 

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.

Thanks for the quote and your descriptions of her upbringing!    Poor sister, I hope that she truly wasn't that bad--and vain (or insecure?)! 

PD

[Karl Henning]

Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.