What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

The Lost World of Byzantium, Jonathan Harris.

Most interesting,  but.. Why lost, anyway? Lost for whom?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Most interesting... Why lost, anyway?

Conquered by Ottoman Turk eventually.

[Florestan]

Conquered by Ottoman Turk eventually.

https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf

Interesting theme/hypothesis. I ordered the English edition!

[San Antone]

Just finished this, and then watched the movie which was very loyal to the book.

Louis L'Amour - Hondo



Then started this one, a continuation of the Duane Moore series by Larry McMurtry, and the Last Picture Show characters.

[SimonNZ]

Goethe: Letters from Italy





This is a series of letters written by Goethe that describes his first impressions of the people and places in Italy on a trip that he made from Trento all the way down to Roma. It is interesting to read his joyful delight and wonder at most of what he encountered on his journey. The fact that he did not edit or rewrite his initial impressions makes for interesting and revealing reading.

Does it say inside on the copyright page if that slim Penguin 60s selection is taken from the larger Italian Journey? Or are the letters something separate?

[Artem]

Jon Fosse's Trilogy. It was good, but very bleak and depressing.

[j winter]

First time reading Anna Kerenina, after tackling War and Peace last year.  I am continually amazed at how good Tolstoy is at fully rendering his characters in just a few quick strokes, and at the sheer writerly craft of it, which is doubly impressive considering that I'm reading it in translation.  Part of me is sorry that I've waited so long to tackle Tolstoy, but another part of me thinks that I probably wouldn't have appreciated it back in college, at least not in the same way.

[Florestan]

Part of me is sorry that I've waited so long to tackle Tolstoy, but another part of me thinks that I probably wouldn't have appreciated it back in college, at least not in the same way.

Agreed. There are certain writers who cannot be fully appreciated until one lives through certain life experiences which are naturally not accessible to teenagers and young adults.

[Mandryka]

Sometimes it's just obvious that you are reading a major masterpiece of world literature. That's the case with The Bear. Falkner's got style, and he's got idea.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Steppenwolf.

[Mandryka]

Sometimes it's just obvious that you are reading a major masterpiece of world literature. That's the case with The Bear. Falkner's got style, and he's got idea.

I just think, having now finished it, including the difficult last part, that it's probably impossible for a Brit to understand Faulkner -- the North/South, White/Black/Indian, untamed wilderness/railroad and town is just so different here. But there is one thing which seems at the heart of the matter and which seems shared in the cultures -- the challenge of breaking free from the past, from ghosts, from traditions.

What should I read next -- the rest of Go Down Moses or should I start on The Hamlet? What about Light in August? I've Read The Sound and The Fury, Absolom, Absolom and As I lay Dying.

For those who know it, there's a particularly memorable moment for me when Ike, aged about 10, divests himself of all the accoutrements of civilisation -- no gun, no compass, no knife etc -- and goes deep into the forest to try to see the bear, Old Ben.

Anyway I think a great author, even if a bit politically incorrect -- and an author very little known here.

[vers la flamme]

I just think, having now finished it, including the difficult last part, that it's probably impossible for a Brit to understand Faulkner -- the North/South, White/Black/Indian, untamed wilderness/railroad and town is just so different here. But there is one thing which seems at the heart of the matter and which seems shared in the cultures -- the challenge of breaking free from the past, from ghosts, from traditions.

What should I read next -- the rest of Go Down Moses or should I start on The Hamlet? What about Light in August? I've Read The Sound and The Fury, Absolom, Absolom and As I lay Dying.

Anyway I think a great author, even if a bit politically incorrect -- and an author very little known here.

My vote is definitely for Light in August. That book blew me away when I read it last year (in August, in fact). You've piqued my interest about The Bear.

[Mandryka]

My vote is definitely for Light in August. That book blew me away when I read it last year (in August, in fact). You've piqued my interest about The Bear.

Well The Bear is part of Go Down Moses, and maybe should be read in that context. It is a tremendous thing though! I'd be interested to know whether you get a good intuitive sympathetic understanding about what's going on in the hunt, the ritual of it.

Are you a southerner? Have you ever been hunting bears?

[vers la flamme]

Well The Bear is part of Go Down Moses, and maybe should be read in that context. It is a tremendous thing though! I'd be interested to know whether you get a good intuitive sympathetic understanding about what's going on in the hunt, the ritual of it.

Are you a southerner? Have you ever been hunting bears?

Yep I'm a southern boy from Florida. We only hunt gators.

The Bear seems to have had a life outside of Go Down Moses, and was also published as part of this thing:



... but maybe I'll just read Go Down Moses.

[Mandryka]

My advice is to just buy the cheapest Bear you can find, and if it whets your appetite to delve a bit more into what this hunt and wilderness and ritual and railroad can possibly mean for Faulkner, and what Chapter 4 is about, then I guess explore the other stories in Go Down Moses.

[Spotted Horses]

I am a big admirer of Faulkner and Go Down Moses and particularly The Bear is something I need to return to. I read it very early in my exploration of Faulkner and found it impenetrable.

[The new erato]

I have read a couple of novels by Jenny Erpenbeck recently. Very powerful stuff with a strong connection to central European history.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Michel de Montaigne: Accidental Philosopher. Ann Hartle. Fun read!

[Mirror Image]

Currently reading through some of this book: