What are you currently reading?

[Brian]

I haven't been keeping up reporting my reading on this thread. Just finished My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, which I found dreary in the extreme. The story of a girl, her self-absorbed friend and their various schoolmates in a depressed neighborhood in Napoli.

I've read this twice now, trying to connect with it because of the rapturous reviews. But I just cannot. There are very few great novels about friendship (separate from romance or family), and it seemed like this could be one, but truthfully it is more a story of friendship being abused, innocence being exploited. The prose style, also praised almost everywhere, seemed very dry to me as well.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Thousand Cranes, Yasunari Kawabata.

[Spotted Horses]

I've read this twice now, trying to connect with it because of the rapturous reviews. But I just cannot. There are very few great novels about friendship (separate from romance or family), and it seemed like this could be one, but truthfully it is more a story of friendship being abused, innocence being exploited. The prose style, also praised almost everywhere, seemed very dry to me as well.

Twice?

I read another book by Ferrante, Troubling Love, which I liked. I think my trouble with My Brilliant Friend is that it is a book about elementary school students (following them up to the age of 16) which attributes to them the literary travails of adults. It doesn't work for me. Maybe I'd like the remaining books in the Naples series, but I've been put off by the first volume. It will be a while before I come back to Ferrante, and it won't be a book from this series.

[ritter]

Harvey Sachs' (second) biography of Toscanini.



So far (Arturo is still only 23 years of age, but has been conducting for the past four years) it is very engaging and appears very well researched.

[Iota]

I haven't been keeping up reporting my reading on this thread. Just finished My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, which I found dreary in the extreme. The story of a girl, her self-absorbed friend and their various schoolmates in a depressed neighborhood in Napoli.

I've read this twice now, trying to connect with it because of the rapturous reviews. But I just cannot. There are very few great novels about friendship (separate from romance or family), and it seemed like this could be one, but truthfully it is more a story of friendship being abused, innocence being exploited. The prose style, also praised almost everywhere, seemed very dry to me as well.

I'd forgotten about that book, but when I read it, driven like Brian by unusually glowing reviews, like you both I failed to find whatever it was that had so enthused everyone. I did wonder if maybe the translation had let Ferrante down, but really was not interested enough to investigate.

[Spotted Horses]

I'd forgotten about that book, but when I read it, driven like Brian by unusually glowing reviews, like you both I failed to find whatever it was that had so enthused everyone. I did wonder if maybe the translation had let Ferrante down, but really was not interested enough to investigate.

One person advised me to skip the first volume and continue with the remaining three. Maybe I should have.

[Brian]

Twice?

I read another book by Ferrante, Troubling Love, which I liked. I think my trouble with My Brilliant Friend is that it is a book about elementary school students (following them up to the age of 16) which attributes to them the literary travails of adults. It doesn't work for me. Maybe I'd like the remaining books in the Naples series, but I've been put off by the first volume. It will be a while before I come back to Ferrante, and it won't be a book from this series.

Twice - the second time four or five years after the first, hoping for a different result. (I had purchased it rather than getting a library copy.) Your comment makes sense as well. It is hard to imagine the characters as small children with some of the interiority they experience.

[Iota]

One person advised me to skip the first volume and continue with the remaining three. Maybe I should have.

Maybe. I think the moment has passed for me. I have a stack of other things to read, before I'd even consider doing that.

[Spotted Horses]

Remarkable that a book we didn't like prompts such discussion. There must be something to it.

[Iota]

Remarkable that a book we didn't like prompts such discussion. There must be something to it.

Well many thousands clearly thought there was. There was also a mystique surrounding the author I seem to remember, as sth like only her publisher knew her identity. That intrigued people. Me too at first.

[atardecer]

I'm reading the second part (third sally) of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. This book has stories within stories and is very humorous and poetic. I was quite impressed by the following description of a sunrise in it:

"By this time a thousand different kinds of brightly colored birds began to warble in the trees, and with their varied and joyous songs they seemed to welcome and greet the new dawn, who, through the doors and balconies of the Orient, was revealing the beauty of her face and shaking from her hair an infinite number of liquid pearls whose gentle liquor bathed the plants that seemed, in turn, to send forth buds and rain down tiny white seed pearls; the willows dripped their sweet tasting manna, the fountains laughed, the streams murmured, the woods rejoiced, and the meadows flourished with her arrival."

[vers la flamme]

I'm reading the second part (third sally) of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. This book has stories within stories and is very humorous and poetic. I was quite impressed by the following description of a sunrise in it:

"By this time a thousand different kinds of brightly colored birds began to warble in the trees, and with their varied and joyous songs they seemed to welcome and greet the new dawn, who, through the doors and balconies of the Orient, was revealing the beauty of her face and shaking from her hair an infinite number of liquid pearls whose gentle liquor bathed the plants that seemed, in turn, to send forth buds and rain down tiny white seed pearls; the willows dripped their sweet tasting manna, the fountains laughed, the streams murmured, the woods rejoiced, and the meadows flourished with her arrival."

I read Don Quixote a few months ago for the first time. I thought it was incredible, just as good as everyone says, though I think I ultimately preferred the first part to the second, for reasons I won't expound upon in case anyone hasn't read it. Both were very, very good though and the ending really broke my heart. I expect I'll reread it in full some day in the not too distant future, maybe more than once. I also loved the "stories within the story".

I'm reading a quite good biography of Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter:

[Florestan]

@atardecer @vers la flamme

Don Quixote is one of the noblest, most wholesome, most humane books I ever read. Whether Top 3, Top 5 or Top 10 Favorite Books, it's always there in my book (pun).

[Mandryka]

@atardecer @vers la flamme

Don Quixote is one of the noblest, most wholesome, most humane books I ever read. Whether Top 3, Top 5 or Top 10 Favorite Books, it's always there in my book (pun).

It's the second part which is either a problem or a towering masterpiece of postmodernism, depending on your point of view.

There's a bit which really sticks in my mind, I just found it so funny and so moving. It's when he comes across some lions.

[Florestan]

It's the second part which is either a problem or a towering masterpiece of postmodernism, depending on your point of view.

What on earth has Cervantes got to do with post-modernism? The whole book is a towering masterpiece period.

[Mandryka]

What on earth has Cervantes got to do with post-modernism? The whole book is a towering masterpiece period.

Just its self referencing in Part 2. Don Quixote the character who only exists in the novel "Don Quixote"  reads "Don Quixote"

[DavidW]

Twice - the second time four or five years after the first, hoping for a different result. (I had purchased it rather than getting a library copy.) Your comment makes sense as well. It is hard to imagine the characters as small children with some of the interiority they experience.

Well you might have missed something... better try a third time to be safe.  

[Mandryka]

I read Don Quixote a few months ago for the first time. I thought it was incredible, just as good as everyone says, though I think I ultimately preferred the first part to the second, for reasons I won't expound upon in case anyone hasn't read it. Both were very, very good though and the ending really broke my heart. I expect I'll reread it in full some day in the not too distant future, maybe more than once. I also loved the "stories within the story".

I'm reading a quite good biography of Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter:

You should maybe visit Merton College Oxford. There's also a pub he used when he was writing Lord of the Rings opposite  St Johns College, The Eagle and Child.

[Papy Oli]

My yearly novel reading:

"Son odeur après la pluie" by Cédric Sapin-Defour, a French best-seller last year.



Where a teacher and dog owner retraces the story of his encounter, love, loss and grief for one of his mountain dogs, Ubac.

No English version as yet, French only. The writing style felt a bit convoluted early on but eventually the beauty of it drew me in. The last 30-40 pages on the grief and the subsequent passage of time are a moving gem.

Article from the Guardian about the book:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/24/bookseller-france-dog-story-life-love-grief-word-of-mouth-bestseller

Anyway, as you were 

[Spotted Horses]

Just its self referencing in Part 2. Don Quixote the character who only exists in the novel "Don Quixote"  reads "Don Quixote"

I believe he is reading fake Don Quixote's that were written by other authors to capitalize on Cervantes' success.