What are you currently reading?

[vers la flamme]

^For my part, I can recommend the three Mishima books I've read all very highly: Confessions of a Mask, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, and Star, though I'm not sure which of these, if any, are available in Romanian.

That book Thousand Cranes by Kawabata is brilliant.

[Florestan]

^For my part, I can recommend the three Mishima books I've read all very highly: Confessions of a Mask, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, and Star, though I'm not sure which of these, if any, are available in Romanian.

Confessions... is OOP (btw, so is Blood Meridian  ), The Sailor... is available.

That book Thousand Cranes by Kawabata is brilliant.

Thanks for the tip.

[vers la flamme]

Confessions... is OOP (btw, so is Blood Meridian  ), The Sailor... is available.

Thanks for the tip.

Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea



A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

+1 on Kawabata's Cranes (I like the cover art of Romanian book). For Endo, I would say Samurai. If you are comfortable with English translation, Life of Jesus and The Sea and Poison are preferable.

Generally, I don't recommend Mishima to average/normal people. The Mask and Sailor are his best works, but the stories, if not writing/expression, are challenging. Specially, the Mask partially deals with the psychology of a homosexual protagonist, and some readers are uncomfortable with it. Still, these works evince his genius in writing skills and imagination. His writing is like an elegant Gothic architecture. In contrast, Kawabata's writing is like a small and simple wooden house, but beautiful and deep.

I checked the availability of Romanian editions of Mishima. I would recommend Confessions of a Mask (oop), The Sailor, Dupa Banchet (personal fav of mine), Sete de Iubire, and Templul de aur, in this order. In sharp contrast to Endo, beauty is more important than life or ethics for Mishima, who is mainly an aestheticist writer.

[aligreto]

Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea



A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.

Very true and very unfortunate.

[JBS]

Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea



A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.

That's quite possibly his greatest book.

[vers la flamme]

That's quite possibly his greatest book.

I really enjoyed it. One of those one-day reads, so I wouldn't be surprised if I read it again one of these days before too long. There are still a handful of major Hemingway books that I have yet to read, so I'm in no position to proclaim this or that book as his greatest, but I'm excited to see how this one stacks up once I read more of them. I just got To Have and Have Not and I just ordered For Whom the Bell Tolls and I hope to read both before the year's over.

Anyone watch the new Ken Burns Hemingway PBS doc? I watched the first episode. Pretty good, I think.

[Florestan]

I just ordered For Whom the Bell Tolls

You're in for a treat. One of the greatest, most sincere novels about the Spanish Civil War*.

* I mean, the latest --- historically it's been the fourth, counting the three so-called Carlist Wars before it, which were also civil wars.

Enjoy!

[Florestan]

Generally, I don't recommend Mishima to average/normal people. The Mask and Sailor are his best works, but the stories, if not writing/expression, are challenging. Specially, the Mask partially deals with the psychology of a homosexual protagonist, and some readers are uncomfortable with it. Still, these works evince his genius in writing skills and imagination. His writing is like an elegant Gothic architecture. In contrast, Kawabata's writing is like a small and simple wooden house, but beautiful and deep.

I checked the availability of Romanian editions of Mishima. I would recommend Confessions of a Mask (oop), The Sailor, Dupa Banchet (personal fav of mine), Sete de Iubire, and Templul de aur, in this order. In sharp contrast to Endo, beauty is more important than life or ethics for Mishima, who is mainly an aestheticist writer.

Thank you very much for that! I will get The Sailor first, and if I like it I might get the other too. Truth be told, I'm not that much into "art for art's sake" save for poetry proper.

(For comparison, I'm not at all into "sound for sound's sake" --- see my signature line.)

As for homosexuality, while I don't care about anyone's sexual preferences and one of my top five composers is Tchaikovsky, I must confess that I do feel uncomfortable with works of art which seem to extoll the virtues of this vice (excuse the pun).

[Florestan]

Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

[vers la flamme]

Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

Your enthusiasm is inspiring; I need to reread this book very soon.

Currently reading Yasunari Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories



I've read the titular story and Diary of My Sixteenth Year so far. Of these I found the latter a bit more impactful. It is seemingly very autobiographical. Kawabata was orphaned as a toddler, and soon lost just about every close family member he had left, losing his grandfather at age 14, and that's exactly what this story describes. There was a very brief passage that I found impactful;

What seemed strangest to me when I found this diary was that I have no recollection of the day-to-day life it describes. If I do not recall them, where have those days gone? Where have they vanished to? I pondered the things that human beings lose to the past.

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.

He is masterful of leaving important things/atmosphere unsaid. He optimizes expression by not expressing. Miles Davis' music/performance often reminds me of Kawabata.

Recently I read insightful reviews on his First Snow on Fuji at Amazon USA. I must get a copy!

[vers la flamme]

He is masterful of leaving important things/atmosphere unsaid. He optimizes expression by not expressing. Miles Davis' music/performance often reminds me of Kawabata.

Recently I read insightful reviews on his First Snow on Fuji at Amazon USA. I must get a copy!

First Snow on Fuji looks great too. I wonder if there is overlap with this collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories which I've also been looking at...



Interesting comparison with Miles. One of my favorite musicians of all time.

[vers la flamme]

Your enthusiasm is inspiring; I need to reread this book very soon.

Currently reading Yasunari Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories



I've read the titular story and Diary of My Sixteenth Year so far. Of these I found the latter a bit more impactful. It is seemingly very autobiographical. Kawabata was orphaned as a toddler, and soon lost just about every close family member he had left, losing his grandfather at age 14, and that's exactly what this story describes. There was a very brief passage that I found impactful;

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.

Finished the book. Many of the stories that comprise Part Two of this book were incredibly puzzling.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

First Snow on Fuji looks great too. I wonder if there is overlap with this collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories which I've also been looking at...



Interesting comparison with Miles. One of my favorite musicians of all time.

Perhaps no overlap. Originally, they are separate Japanese collections of short stories. I had the Palm, but lost it and other books I had when a tornado destroyed my house 3 years ago. Some people, including American readers, seem to like the book, but I thought it was just fair/good.  Interestingly, the First Snow is oop and not well-known in Japan.

I will reread Koto-Old Capital soon. I read it decades ago and liked it. Originally it is written in elegant/exotic Kyoto-accent Japanese (perhaps corresponding to the 19th century Cambridge English in the U.K. for the Americans?).   But, Conjugations and nouns radically differ among traditional regional languages in Japan. Probably, the differences are bigger than the differences among the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Almost all the people today prefer speaking the standard Japanese though.

[SonicMan46]

Well my current books over the last month:

The Quaker & the Gamecock - about the Southern Campaign in the American Revolutionary War, mainly the years 1780-81 and an emphasis on two dominant players in mainly the South Carolina theater, i.e. Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army and Brigadier General Thomas Sumter of the local militia army (along w/ the famous Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox) - I've been traveling that state, esp. the coastal areas since the early 1970s, so a LOT of familiarity.

Mac Unlocked (Nov 2020) by David Pogue - been reading Pogue's books for decades - discusses Apple's newest Mac operating system, Big Sur (renamed OS 11.x, now up to 11.3) - of course, Apple is in the process of 'dumping' Intel processors in its laptops/desktops for their own designed silicon (called SoC, 'System on a Chip' - see quote below, if interested), the first being the M1 SoC - this has not been an easy transition for many, and I've still held off upgrading two of my Mac computers (desktop & a laptop) to Big Sur for a variety of reasons - both still doing fine on their previous MacOS Catalina (10.15.7).

The United States Army.....1775-1903 - just getting started today w/ this new hardcover book - an exciting period from the Revolutionary War, establishment of West Point and through the Indian Wars - should be a fun read for a BIG John Wayne fan - might be watching a bunch of westerns during the course of this reading!   Dave

The Apple M1 is an ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Macintosh computers and iPad Pro tablets. It was inspired by their Apple A14 Bionic chip.[4] The M1 is the first Apple-designed processor deployed in Macintosh computers,[5] and the first personal computer chip built using a 5 nm technology node process. (Source)

    

[vers la flamme]

Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not



Hemingway's "Depression book" has special interest for me, being his only (?) book set mostly in my home state of Florida, specifically Key West, a city whose history has always been fascinating to me. Hemingway seems to have taken up the socialist cause here, creating a book which details the atrocities common people are driven to in dire economic straits. Aside from this, it's an absolute action thriller of a book, and a real page turner. I'm enjoying it greatly except for the incredibly racist language, which has aged quite poorly—I reckon this is not a "cool" book to be reading in today's political climate in this country. Few of Hemingway's books display both his flaws and his strengths in such equal measure as this, I reckon.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Abraham Maslow, the theorist of the Hierarchy of Needs. Always good.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

I must get a copy!

[Florestan]

I must get a copy!

Please, do! You'll enjoy it as much as Silence, methinks.

I'll refrain from posting my thoughts, then, as they could be spoilers. We can always discuss the book after you read it.