What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

I have that edition. Browne's style is like a very rich dessert for me: wonderful to taste but a very small amount fills you for a long time. I think I've never been able to read more than 5 pages at a sitting.

That's a fascinating description. I've heard his prose compared to Proust's. Would you agree?

I'm also noticing for the first time that the Penguin edition has Samuel Johnson's Life Of Browne as a bonus appendix.

[SimonNZ]

I love Sebald. He's one of my all time favourite authors. That book made me fall in love with his prose right away.

Have you read his novel Austerlitz? How does that compare to his free-associating non-fiction?

[JBS]

That's a fascinating description. I've heard his prose compared to Proust's. Would you agree?

I'm also noticing for the first time that the Penguin edition has Samuel Johnson's Life Of Browne as a bonus appendix.

I can see why the comparison is made. But I 've only read part of the first volume of Moncrieff Scott's translation, so I can't judge how accurate it is.
I would compare him to Donne and Herrick: what they were doing in poetry he did in prose. And I have to wonder if he didn't influence Joyce.

[Florestan]

Stamboul Train

The overall atmosphere here is somewhat lighter than in The Power and the Glory but the moral dilemma of the protagonist is not. The literary style is as engaging and compelling and the characters are as vividly and convincingly portrayed. Yet another Graham Greene success for me.

Next:



Royal Highness

[Artem]

Have you read his novel Austerlitz? How does that compare to his free-associating non-fiction?

I read most of his books that were translated into English. I didn't like Austerlitz the first time I read it as much as I liked The Rings of Saturn, for example. Austerlitz maybe the closest to the "normal" novel that Sebald wrote if you compare with his other books. It just crushed me on the second reread. It's a very beautiful and powerful work of literature.

[steve ridgway]

Hubble 25: A Quarter-Century of Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope free from https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hubble_25_detail.html. Just trying out the Books EPUB reader on my iPad and it looks great.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Inspired by vers la flamme's post of No Longer Human (Osamu Dazai), I just started reading Chronicles of My Life by Donald Keene, who translated many Japanese literary works, including No Longer Human. Keene, born in New York, NY, was a prominent scholar of Japanese literature and culture. He was also a classical music lover and a big fan of the Metropolitan Opera. Non-Japanese readers and Japanese people should be grateful to Keene's massive contributions, including his numerous authorship and translations.

[Artem]

It looks very interesting.

[SimonNZ]

Knocked off this quickie:



I could never live as minimally as he does, but his philosophy and methods were nevertheless fascinating

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Knocked off this quickie:



I could never live as minimally as he does, but his philosophy and methods were nevertheless fascinating

That's my philosophy. I will get the book.

[Fritz Kobus]

[SimonNZ]

That's my philosophy. I will get the book.

An unexpected facet was the authors frank description of his pre-minimal problem drinking and how his new philosophy solved that  without having intended to.

[vers la flamme]

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain



This is definitely a great book, but I'm finding it a challenging read given my current state of mind. May or may not shelve it for later reading.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful, and semi-autobiographical, story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (It is pronounced like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  A few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

It looks very interesting.

You will like the book!

[André]

Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (You pronounce like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

I went through an extensive Hesse phase in my late teens/early twenties. I recall having liked this one. A couple of years back I bought the collected novels of Hesse. I still have to unwrap it...

[Florestan]

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain



This is definitely a great book, but I'm finding it a challenging read given my current state of mind. May or may not shelve it for later reading.

I read it twice in its entirety and several times fragmentarily. Depending on my mood, I side either with Settembrini or with Naphta --- and always with mynheer Pepperkorn. Oh, and btw, if I were 20 years younger I wouldn't mind a one night stand with Clavdia Chauchat. 

Strange coincidence, though, as I've just started this for a first reading:



Started it yesterday at noon and I'm already more than halfway through the first volume. A real page turner. Thomas Mann, a bourgeois artist, a poet of the bourgeois lifestyle. Excellent.

[Florestan]

Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful, and semi-autobiographical, story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (It is pronounced like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  A few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

The first Hesse book I ever read --- it blew me right away. A great little book from a guy who would eventually become one of my favorite writers.

What other Hesse have you read, or plan to read?

[Ganondorf]

I started my journey with Mann with Royal Highness and Buddenbrooks and they are still my favorites. I loved Magic mountain too. I am still not finished with Joseph. So far there is no book by Mann yet which I have not liked.

[Florestan]

I started my journey with Mann with Royal Highness and Buddenbrooks and they are still my favorites. I loved Magic mountain too. I am still not finished with Joseph. So far there is no book by Mann yet which I have not liked.

I'm reading Royal Highness in paralel with The Budenbrooks --- as my life is split between two locations, but I find the latter much more of a page turner than the former.

How about Doktor Faustus? Any other fan here?