What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus

+ 1!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus

+ 1.

[SimonNZ]

Love that and the whole Gateway/Heechee series, especially the way the author's ambition and scope expands outwards with each subsequent book.

[steve ridgway]

Is that classic SF? I read some of his stuff in the 70s but don't recall any titles.

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

Céline's Journey to the End of Night has been on my read list only since 1974...my French is good but I've resorted to an English translation as it's overfilled with slang I don't recognize. Glad to be fulfilling my post-adolescent reading objectives at long last! 

[vers la flamme]

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask



A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Glad you like the book. It was published in 1949, a few years after the defeat (and total destruction) of Japan in WW2, and the story and the author's talent shocked the people. Mishima was 24 years old, and the chief editor of the publishing company was the father of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Now reading Montaigne's Essay.

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask



A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.

[aligreto]

Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus

+ 1!

+ 1.

Thank you guys.

[aligreto]

Hemingway: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber





This is a collection of short stories. I have enjoyed Hemmingway's short stories ever since I was a young man and I have subsequently enjoyed this re-read.

[vers la flamme]

Hemingway: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber





This is a collection of short stories. I have enjoyed Hemmingway's short stories ever since I was a young man and I have subsequently enjoyed this re-read.

I read Macomber earlier this month and found it to be an amazing story. The collection in which I read it seemed to be more of a mixed bag and there was at least one story that I didn't get all that much out of. Hemingway is a great writer, of course, and he's written at least two books that I really love: A Moveable Feast and especially The Sun Also Rises which changed my life when I first read it in high school.

[SimonNZ]

Finished:



Started:

[milk]

Love that and the whole Gateway/Heechee series, especially the way the author's ambition and scope expands outwards with each subsequent book.

I'm on to the second one now. I liked the first. I have a hard time with sci-fi. I love Le Guin but most others in the genre don't work out for me. Gateway has a cranky edge to it that I like even though I think I can imagine a lot of people not getting into it.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask



A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.

Dazai's No Longer Human is a fine book with some similarities to the Mask. But it is not as dark as Mishima.

[vers la flamme]

Dazai's No Longer Human is a fine book with some similarities to the Mask. But it is not as dark as Mishima.

I'm unfamiliar with Dazai. I'll have to check that out. I finished Mishima's Confessions yesterday morning, it's such a brilliant book.

Now onto Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a reread, but I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Just starting this book:  Sarah Dunant's "Blood & Beauty"



It's a work of fiction dealing with the Borgias.  I quite enjoyed her book:  "The Birth of Venus" a number of years ago. 

From what I understand, she's a British author who has spent quite some time in Italy and has done a fair bit of research about certain periods and regions in Italian history.
https://www.sarahdunant.com

[vers la flamme]

I'm unfamiliar with Dazai. I'll have to check that out. I finished Mishima's Confessions yesterday morning, it's such a brilliant book.

Now onto Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a reread, but I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

This is an unbelievably heavy book, especially for how short it is. I get the impression that Tolstoy was truly tormented by the idea of his own mortality.

[aligreto]

Somerset Maugham: The Trembling of a Leaf





This is a fine collection of short stories which are set in the South Sea Islands. Maugham was a master storyteller and these tales are gems.

[vers la flamme]

Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Well, that was an absolutely incredible read. As I said it was a reread; I read it during Russian lit class in college, but it did not leave much impression on me at the time. Reading it now a few years down the line, it was a completely different story. I guess I found it so much more relatable this time around. I need to get around to reading more Tolstoy...

[vers la flamme]

Just started Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov



Another reread (technically) though I don't think I ever finished it in the past. In any case it's been over 10 years since I last read any of it. So far, so good. I know some people dislike the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, but it seems to be doing it for me well enough so far.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Well, that was an absolutely incredible read. As I said it was a reread; I read it during Russian lit class in college, but it did not leave much impression on me at the time. Reading it now a few years down the line, it was a completely different story. I guess I found it so much more relatable this time around. I need to get around to reading more Tolstoy...

As you will probably be aware, when Tolstoy listened to Tchaikovsky's Andante Cantabile, he was moved and wept. But the relationship between the two was complex.

https://www.pushkinhouse.org/blog/2020/4/22/when-tchaikovsky-met-tolstoy


Currently reading this fine book.