What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Gertrude, Hermann Hesse. A love triangle among an introverted composer, a passionate opera singer, and a girl of upper-class family.

[vers la flamme]

Gertrude, Hermann Hesse. A love triangle among an introverted composer, a passionate opera singer, and a girl of upper-class family.

Never read this one; sounds good. I'd love to read more Hesse.

Yesterday I finished The Brothers Karamazov. What a book! I was definitely in the mood for more Dostoevsky, so I've started The Double, a much shorter novel from the very beginning of his career. So far so good, it's quite funny:

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Never read this one; sounds good. I'd love to read more Hesse.

Yesterday I finished The Brothers Karamazov. What a book! I was definitely in the mood for more Dostoevsky, so I've started The Double, a much shorter novel from the very beginning of his career. So far so good, it's quite funny:

It is a wonderful novella. Among Hesse's earlier/pre-Demian works, possibly Gertrude and Peter Camenzind are the most accomplished works though Beneath the Wheel is better-known In populace.

I love The Gambler.  The characters and psychologies are well-developed and well-depicted. There are plotter, sycophant, defeatist, nihilist, etc. I like the grandma. I don't listen to Prokofiev's The Gambler much. I should do so occasionally.

[vers la flamme]

It is a wonderful novella. Among Hesse's earlier/pre-Demian works, possibly Gertrude and Peter Camenzind are the most accomplished works though Beneath the Wheel is better-known In populace.

I love The Gambler.  The characters and psychologies are well-developed and well-depicted. There are plotter, sycophant, defeatist, nihilist, etc. I like the grandma. I don't listen to Prokofiev's The Gambler much. I should do so occasionally.

I just saw Beneath the Wheel at a used bookstore yesterday but I put it back on the shelf and got something else. Hesse is great but I kind of burned myself out on his work after reading 3 or 4 of his novels back to back last year.

[vers la flamme]

Must confess that ultimately I did not like The Double very much. Dostoevsky would go on to write much, much finer things. But I will revisit it in the future.

Just finished a book I started yesterday, another recommendation from our DBK, Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.



The story of an ill-fated love affair between a wealthy dilettante and a very young provincial geisha in a resort town of the Japanese snow country, I had somewhat mixed feelings about the book, but did ultimately find Kawabata's spare and lyrical prose very beautiful. Despite that the protagonist, Shimamura, was among the least compelling characters I've ever read about—he has very little personality, he does not work nor endure any serious hardship—I still found him a relatable figure. He seems to experience great pain from the beauty of the world, a feeling I know only too well, though one I've never been able to understand. His relationship with the hard-partying Komako reminded me a bit of some of the flings I've had when I was a bit younger. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese literature. You can read it very easily in a day or an afternoon.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Must confess that ultimately I did not like The Double very much. Dostoevsky would go on to write much, much finer things. But I will revisit it in the future.

Just finished a book I started yesterday, another recommendation from our DBK, Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.



The story of an ill-fated love affair between a wealthy dilettante and a very young provincial geisha in a resort town of the Japanese snow country, I had somewhat mixed feelings about the book, but did ultimately find Kawabata's spare and lyrical prose very beautiful. Despite that the protagonist, Shimamura, was among the least compelling characters I've ever read about—he has very little personality, he does not work nor endure any serious hardship—I still found him a relatable figure. He seems to experience great pain from the beauty of the world, a feeling I know only too well, though one I've never been able to understand. His relationship with the hard-partying Komako reminded me a bit of some of the flings I've had when I was a bit younger. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese literature. You can read it very easily in a day or an afternoon.

Thank you for the review. Kawabata's works sometimes appear to be thin, simple, or superficial. There are no explanations or descriptions much let alone psychologies. And the characters in his works don't challenge their circumstances 
Funny, Mishima, whose works are like Gothic architecture-flamboyant and energetic, loved Kawabata's works, which are like origami.
Kawabata received Nobel Prize because of Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and the Old Capitol. Though I prefer the latter two and Dancing Girl of Izu, still Snow Country is a beautiful story. It seems to me Thousand Cranes is a solid and fine work.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay. Analysis of my favorite cinema director.

[vers la flamme]

Thank you for the review. Kawabata's works sometimes appear to be thin, simple, or superficial. There are no explanations or descriptions much let alone psychologies. And the characters in his works don't challenge their circumstances 
Funny, Mishima, whose works are like Gothic architecture-flamboyant and energetic, loved Kawabata's works, which are like origami.
Kawabata received Nobel Prize because of Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and the Old Capitol. Though I prefer the latter two and Dancing Girl of Izu, still Snow Country is a beautiful story. It seems to me Thousand Cranes is a solid and fine work.

I'll most definitely be reading more Kawabata. I was thinking Thousand Cranes next, which ought to be another very quick read. May even swing by Barnes & Noble tonight and see if they have it. But I will look out for The Dancing Girl of Izu which I hadn't heard of.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I'll most definitely be reading more Kawabata. I was thinking Thousand Cranes next, which ought to be another very quick read.

Sounds great. Thousand Cranes is an exemplar of Kawabata's aesthetics and style.

Izu Girl is a fine short story as well.

[aligreto]

Somerset Maugham: The Painted Veil





I found this to be a wonderful story told very well in Maugham's very easy storytelling style. It is a story of a wasted youth, a convenient marriage, a trip to China, infidelity and ultimate [unsuspected] retribution. The characters are very credible and come alive on the page. Maugham wrote people really very well.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Somerset Maugham: The Painted Veil





I found this to be a wonderful story told very well in Maugham's very easy storytelling style. It is a story of a wasted youth, a convenient marriage, a trip to China, infidelity and ultimate [unsuspected] retribution. The characters are very credible and come alive on the page. Maugham wrote people really very well.

I haven't read the work. The plot sounds very interesting. I will get a copy!

[Artem]

With this book I think I've read all the major works by Thomas Bernhard that have been translated into English language thus far. He's one of my all time favourite authors.

[vers la flamme]

Rereading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I first read this as a teenager and loved it, though rereading now, I'm realizing how much of it went over my head, particularly its deep strains of homoeroticism. In any case, its masterful treatment of the tragedies of aging and decadence left a strong mark on me at the time, and it's exciting to revisit this beautiful work. It's such an easy read, too. Anyone could pick up this book and fall in love with it. I reckon it would make a perfect introduction to Victorian literature.



This edition contains tons and tons of notes, including many references to an earlier version of the novel, from which Wilde both toned down some of the more explicit homoerotic elements, and added several chapters and even characters.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Rereading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I first read this as a teenager and loved it, though rereading now, I'm realizing how much of it went over my head, particularly its deep strains of homoeroticism. In any case, its masterful treatment of the tragedies of aging and decadence left a strong mark on me at the time, and it's exciting to revisit this beautiful work. It's such an easy read, too. Anyone could pick up this book and fall in love with it. I reckon it would make a perfect introduction to Victorian literature.



This edition contains tons and tons of notes, including many references to an earlier version of the novel, from which Wilde both toned down some of the more explicit homoerotic elements, and added several chapters and even characters.

Masterpiece by the genius. Elegant and sophisticated writing with occasional irony. It was interesting to read that some characters frequently smoked opium. I love his other stories, such as the Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan, as well.

There is a movie about him titled "Wilde." It is an enjoyable/interesting, if not excellent, movie.

[vers la flamme]

Masterpiece by the genius. Elegant and sophisticated writing with occasional irony. It was interesting to read that some characters frequently smoked opium. I love his other stories, such as the Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan, as well.

There is a movie about him titled "Wilde." It is an enjoyable/interesting, if not excellent, movie.

I think I need to read some of his plays next. As much as I loved this book when reading it in my younger life, I never went on to check out anything else by Wilde.

[Mandryka]

Enjoying this poem by John Donne

I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements and an angelic sprite,
But black sin hath betray'd to endless night
My world's both parts, and oh both parts must die.
You which beyond that heaven which was most high
Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,
Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
Or wash it, if it must be drown'd no more.
But oh it must be burnt; alas the fire
Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,
And made it fouler; let their flames retire,
And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal
Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.

[steve ridgway]

Enjoying this poem by John Donne

That's a very well written and expressive poem but the concept of "sin" has done its damage. I'm getting my spiritual fix for the day by considering the Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere). 0:)

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Love Among the Haystacks, D.H. Lawrence. I like the subtlety and nuance of the story.

[Artem]

Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good as Convenience store woman. Wouldn't recommend it as a starting point with Murata.

[vers la flamme]

I started two books yesterday, Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore:



and Leonard Bernstein's The Joy of Music:



Both are very good so far.