What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet. Matthieu Ricard.

[SimonNZ]

Half way through:



Also have finally made a start on this:

[Spotted Horses]

Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood.



This is Atwood's second novel, published around 1970.

A woman returns to her childhood home on a remote island in a lake in Quebec after, having been notified that her father has gone missing there. She is accompanied by Joe, her lover, and a married couple. In the remote setting, without the distractions of modern life, things start coming to the surface, literally and figuratively. Her friends' marriage seems to unravel and her relationship with Joe, which she can't fully commit to, seems to come undone. And of course they are stranded there.

The story is secondary to themes of isolation, feminism, Canadian nationalism. The themes that Atwood would make more explicit in later dystopia fiction is expressed here in a more subtle context.

I found the book very interesting and worthwhile.

[Mandryka]

It's amazingly good, I'm not sure I'll stay for the course but it is clearly poetic and iconoclastic. These prisoners he falls in love with, for him they're angels, they're gods, I'm sure it's deep. But me, I just like the sex scenes, and all the thrilling accounts of robbery and violence.

[LKB]

Re-reading Citizens of London by Lynne Olson.

I suppose a sense of being enveloped by negativity has generated a need for it. In any event, those curious about the period and the personalities involved would be well served by the book.

[vers la flamme]

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows



Never have I heard Japanese aesthetics captured so succinctly and summarily. This man's a great writer. I need to read some of his fiction.

[aligreto]

Kipling: Limits and Renewals





This is a book of short stories. Kipling's take on Life and the language that he uses is rather on the quirky side. I found it to be a difficult read sometimes.

[Florestan]

Kipling's take on Life [...] is rather on the quirky side.

If is quite on the right side, though. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows

I need to read some of his fiction.

I think Makioka Sisters or 7 Japanese Tales (Portrait of Shunkin) would be a good start. Personally, I think his early short stories are the best, but they have not been translated into English. If you could find "A Boy" or "Secret", I would strongly recommend it.

http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-secret-short-story-by-junichiro.html



Post.ed. I think this book has "The Secret" by Tanizaki. Vg short story, imo. Also, "The Children" in the book is a translation of "A Boy."

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Club-Michigan-Monograph-Japanese/dp/0472053353

[aligreto]

If is quite on the right side, though. 

That is very true, Andrei, but these stories were just too idiosyncratic for my taste.

[Ganondorf]

After Maupassant's best known work I turn to other famous naturalist masterpiece, Emile Zola's "Germinal". Devoured the first part and more in one sitting. Zola is one of my favorite writers and this is very impressive.

[vers la flamme]

I think Makioka Sisters or 7 Japanese Tales (Portrait of Shunkin) would be a good start. Personally, I think his early short stories are the best, but they have not been translated into English. If you could find "A Boy" or "Secret", I would strongly recommend it.

http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-secret-short-story-by-junichiro.html



Post.ed. I think this book has "The Secret" by Tanizaki. Vg short story, imo. Also, "The Children" in the book is a translation of "A Boy."

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Club-Michigan-Monograph-Japanese/dp/0472053353

Thanks my friend. I ordered Makioka Sisters. Might also order this short story collection.

[aligreto]

My planned reading over the Christmas period is this collection of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories:

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Thanks my friend. I ordered Makioka Sisters. Might also order this short story collection.

Nice choice.
It seems to me, the Gourmet Club is a solid collection of short stories. I find it funny that a renowned, well-respected university press published these twisted stories. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

My planned reading over the Christmas period is this collection of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories:

Do you have the books with these covers? They are gorgeous and elegant. Nice color as well.

[aligreto]

Do you have the books with these covers? They are gorgeous and elegant. Nice color as well.

Yes I do. I have most of that particular collection. The photo below is a stock photo but the collection would look like this on the shelf

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yes I do. I have most of that particular collection. The photo below is a stock photo but the collection would look like this on the shelf

They are elegant. I am certain that your library looks great!

[aligreto]

They are elegant. I am certain that your library looks great!

Not particularly, to be honest. It is in my attic which also stores my vinyl, my CD collection, my wife's treasures and miscellaneous junk. We have been trying to declutter over the last few years, including books. It is slow but we have made an impact. Getting rid of the books is difficult though. But once we have decided that we will not read one again it now goes to a charity shop.

[André]

A few days ago I embarked on re-re-re-reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in a new translation in French by Claire de Oliveira. The 'received' translation by Maurice Betz has reigned unchallenged for close to a century. I've compared a few pages and the differences are noticeable. Gone are the quaint syntactic peculiarities (Betz' own way to translate Mann's notoriously idiosyncratic german sentences) that sometimes made for slightly weird results. The pacing of the narrative is more fluid, which certainly helps to move along. I object however to some aspects like the intrusion of the infamous contemporary 'du coup' (as a result, consequently, hence, etc). It jars and slightly cheapens the literary value of the text. Still, as masterpieces go, Mann's magnum opus takes some beating. Against all odds given the subject matter it's a real page turner.

[SonicMan46]

The Bright Ages (December 2021) by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry - just released and a 'new look' at the history of medieval Europe which the authors have called not the dark but the bright ages - I've been reading medieval history for a long time and have a number of video courses - a LOT went on over that approximate 1,000 year period (the dates I like, of course arguably, are 476 CE for the beginning when the last emperor in Rome was deposed by invading ruffians and 1453 CE when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire). Just about a third done and enjoyable.

A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe (April 2021) by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe - just finished the book on Neanderthal Man by Svante Päabo who with his 'team' sequenced the genome of the extinct human ancestor; Krause is one of his students and updates the last 10 years of the genetic history of ancient 'humans' in Europe and the Near East.  Just getting started - Dave