What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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Fëanor

#11240
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 01:14:54 PM
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil



Felt like reading a bit more German philosophy. Must say that Nietzsche goes over my head a bit more than does Schopenhauer. Must also reiterate that I have never really been a philosophy guy. But I enjoy his passion and sincerity.

I read Beyond Good & Evil many years ago as well as a couple of the Nietzsche works.  I'm very much not a philosophy guy either, (though right now I'm reading Marcus Aurelius).  Don't skip Walter Kaufmann's introduction;  Kaufmann was probably the major Nietzsche schooler and apologist.

My main take-away from Nietzsche was his concept of "ressentiment".  I think some minor variant of ressentiment by the American White working class is the major explanation for the Trump phenomenon.

aligreto

John Connolly: The Dirty South





This is a crime thriller. It is a page turner but not written in that snappy, sassy style of curt conversation and description. This has a straightforward but detailed plot. The chapters are short as the action is fast paced and is also taken from a different standpoint in each chapter all concluding at one, conclusive point. Characters are well rounded and developed. It is all very well done and it is a well written and well presented book. I enjoyed the read. 

Dry Brett Kavanaugh


Dry Brett Kavanaugh


Ganondorf


DavidW

I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!

Ganondorf

Quote from: DavidW on July 18, 2021, 06:33:17 AM
I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!

It sure is! This is actually a re-read for me (unlike the collection of short stories by Maupassant which is the first touch for me) and has always been my favorite from Stevenson, even better than Jekyll and Hyde.

Jo498

I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and Casanova's My Life (memoirs.) I agree that Treasure Island is a wonderful novel though.

aligreto

Quote from: Jo498 on July 18, 2021, 08:14:17 AM
I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).

There is a name that I have not come across since my childhood, may years ago. The adventures in deep dark Africa in King Solomon's Mines were very awe inspiring when I was a youngster  8)

vers la flamme

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet



I've been meaning to read Rilke for a very long time, but never got around to it until now. This is a very famous book often recommended as a place to start, despite being that, as a collection of letters, it was never truly intended to be a book by its author. Anyway, the writing is beautiful and hard hitting; I'm enjoying it greatly so far. I wish I'd read it when I was younger. On a more personal note, my mother, a writer herself, was a big fan of Rilke; it's an interesting feeling reading this and knowing my mother would have read the same book and taken similar insights from it. She died when I was very young, so I always value things, books, music that serves, for me, as a kind of connection to her life.

JBS

There's a new translation that was just published (June 1 is the date Amazon gives)

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: vers la flamme on July 18, 2021, 04:48:39 PM
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I wish I'd read it when I was younger.

Great book. May she rest in peace.
I feel the same for the Essays by Michel de Montaigne.

Artem

Recently finished


Short tales of poverty and sex, rather explicit, in Cuba. Interesting read.


Two short novellas. One is about disturbing childhood emotions and another much stronger one about the WWII.


A very French novel about love, passion and crime. Patti Smith in a wonderfully written introduction tells of discovering this book for herself in her early 20s. I think I would have liked it more if I read it about 15-20 years ago too.

SimonNZ

I'd recommend the Duino Elegies as the best place to start with Rilke's poetry, though really its all of consistent quality.

started:



After having stumbled on this amazing review of the 50th anniversary in the Guardian:

Violent spring: The nature book that predicted the future
Robert Macfarlane remembers JA Baker's The Peregrine – a fierce, ecstatic, prophetic account of one man's obsession that has held readers in its talon-like grip for 50 years


That article mentions Werner Herzog's admiration of the book, and I found a few of his thoughts on it here:

Werner Herzog on 'The Peregrine'

vers la flamme

Quote from: SimonNZ on July 19, 2021, 12:39:15 AM
I'd recommend the Duino Elegies as the best place to start with Rilke's poetry, though really its all of consistent quality.

started:



After having stumbled on this amazing review of the 50th anniversary in the Guardian:

Violent spring: The nature book that predicted the future
Robert Macfarlane remembers JA Baker's The Peregrine – a fierce, ecstatic, prophetic account of one man's obsession that has held readers in its talon-like grip for 50 years


That article mentions Werner Herzog's admiration of the book, and I found a few of his thoughts on it here:

Werner Herzog on 'The Peregrine'

I've been meaning to read that book. Let us know what you think.

SimonNZ

Quote from: vers la flamme on July 19, 2021, 01:57:24 AM
I've been meaning to read that book. Let us know what you think.

Its immediately striking what a facility he has with poetical language - its a pity he never published as a poet.

aligreto

Orwell: Coming Up For Air





There are no spoilers in this description of the plot. The joy, detail and the interest is in Orwell's wonderful writing skill. George Bowling is middle aged and fat with false teeth and a red face [his words, not mine] and is dissatisfied and disillusioned with his lot in life, his marriage, his job and he also feels a dissipating anxiety over another potential World War [the book was written between 1938 and 1939]. One day, his pleasant childhood days were suddenly recalled to his memory. His memories are full of very pleasant reminiscences and it was always summer time. He has a sentimental attachment to that bygone world, not just for the sake of his childhood but for the age and values that it represented. So, just to get a break from the fatigue and disillusionment of the rat race and the constant fear of imminent war he decides to revisit the town in which he grew up. He is aghast at what he finds there now. Then an incident happens which is both ironic and symbolic and makes him decide to return home immediately. The joy of the read is in his telling of the story. It is a most enjoyable and engaging read.

Florestan

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 12:43:12 PM
There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights,

Which is not an adventure novel by any stretch of imagination.  :)

QuoteDon Quixote

Much less suitable for kids, if at all, than Treasure Island;)

I'm in contrarian mood today, beware!  >:D :P

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Jo498

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 12:43:12 PM
There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and Casanova's My Life (memoirs.) I agree that Treasure Island is a wonderful novel though.
Of these only Huckleberry Finn and The Three Musketeers could be classified as adventure novels and I'd say that Huck Finn is more of a picaresque (like Quixote). The two others aren't even novels and while I probably read some children's version of a few Arabian Nights tales (like Sindbad's travels) around the same time in elementary school, the originals are usually too adult.

The good thing about Treasure Island is that it is not as historically loaded as Scott or Dumas (and not as long either...). I suspect that Stevenson got a bit more into that Scott Tradition with Kidnapped/Catriona (while keeping a teenager as main character) and I liked the first (although I read it much later as an adult) I don't think it is as good as Treasure Island.

BTW, for those who like the Arabian Nights, I highly recommend the "The Manuscript found in Saragossa" by Count Jan Potocki. The guy's life was stranger than many novels and that novel is a crazy wild ride (and the book had a strange fate as well).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Potocki
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal