What are you currently reading?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It's psycho-pathology, not psychopath-ology.

I come a bit late to this terrific distinction. But it's never too late for a very wry smile!

[M forever]

Thomas Bernhard -- Extinction
Highly strung, hyperbolic, sarcastic, ranting, corrosive. This guy definitely has a voice of his own. I have never seen anyone hate his own country so much (Austria -- where I live by the way, that is what prompted me to read this).
But overall, well worth reading. A surprisingly funny ending.

You live in Austria but read Bernhard in English?

[mozartsneighbor]

You live in Austria but read Bernhard in English?

Excuse me if after 8 months of living here, prior to which I spoke 0 German, I am not yet fully able to read serious heavy-duty literature in German.
I do try to read a lot in German, but for now mostly simpler stuff, like Der Spiegel and detective stories and so on. I watch most movies dubbed in German, which I think is barbaric, but it does my learning good, as well as Austrian tv.

I do hope that in the matter of 1 year or so I will be able to tackle another Bernhard book in German.

And, I have to say, M, your mother tongue is not easy -- that grammar has given me countless headaches. But I am getting there...

[karlhenning]

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- A grotesque comparison of a steamy love affair to a New York City street has won a Washington man this year's grand prize in an annual contest of bad writing.

[Kullervo]

Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake

[Kullervo]

While listening to NPR in the car today I heard an English professor cite a novel by Édouard Dujardin as the progenitor of the stream-of-consciousness style. Has anyone read anything by him? Is he worth reading or just a curiosity?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

While listening to NPR in the car today I heard an English professor cite a novel by Édouard Dujardin as the progenitor of the stream-of-consciousness style. Has anyone read anything by him? Is he worth reading or just a curiosity?

Les lauriers sont coupés - Dujardin was a Wagnerian and a Symbolist. Joyce read him in his twenties, and he later maintained Dujardin gave him the idea for the monologue intérieur... I haven't read the novel. But this is what I know. Btw - Dujardin was still alive when Ulysses was published in 1922, and he was flattered to be cited as one of the influences (if I remember my Ellmann correctly).

[Solitary Wanderer]

I read this about 10 years ago.

Sobering reading 

[mahler10th]

This is in the public domain.

[Kullervo]

Les lauriers sont coupés - Dujardin was a Wagnerian and a Symbolist. Joyce read him in his twenties, and he later maintained Dujardin gave him the idea for the monologue intérieur... I haven't read the novel. But this is what I know. Btw - Dujardin was still alive when Ulysses was published in 1922, and he was flattered to be cited as one of the influences (if I remember my Ellmann correctly).

Thanks. His name actually came up because the radio host asked the professor if Joyce was the first author to write in that style. I asked here in hopes that one of our francophile francophone literati might have read him (as it seems he is not very well-known outside of his home country).

[Lilas Pastia]

I am francophone but not francophile - at least not when it comes to literature. I had never even heard of Dujardin before. Any relationship with the comic actor?

[Kullervo]

I am francophone but not francophile

This has been happening a lot lately — I blame Freud's psychopathology. Earlier today while in the bookshop I read the title on a book's spine as The Gods are Atheist by Anatole France.

[SonicMan46]

Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped (2008) by Tony Perrottet - on an overnight to Greensboro to spend a day @ the PGA golf tournament - brought along this new acquisition - believe another NY Times Book Review recommendation - just starting but some absolutely hilarious stories - click HERE for comments by the Amazonians - his other book on Pagan Holiday sounds like a fun read, also - 

[Frankler]

[M forever]

Is that a self-help book for men in their mid-life crisis?

[Solitary Wanderer]

Is that a self-help book for men in their mid-life crisis?

Suitable for men of all ages. I liked what I read last night dealing with Jungian archetypes 

[Lilas Pastia]

This has been happening a lot lately — I blame Freud's psychopathology. Earlier today while in the bookshop I read the title on a book's spine as The Gods are Atheist by Anatole France.

Like all great cultures, France has its modernists, its conservatives, and its free spirits. Modernists like Zola advocate change and provoke. In the light of history, they more often than not come up short: their rigid views eventually appear stale. Free spirits like Anatole France or André Gide are agents of forward momentum. They in turn are held in check by the tradition-minded conservatives (like Paul Valéry). In between sit wishy-washy sensualists like Proust.

[Opus106]

On loan from the library

The Jeeves Omnibus, Vol. 1, containing Thank You, Jeeves, The Code of Woosters, and The Inimitable Jeeves.

P. G. Wodehouse

Watson and DNA Making a Scientific Revolution

Victor K. McElheny

and

Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological

Wolfgang Rindler

I've never read Wodehouse before. But I remember my grandfather telling me how he enjoyed his works, especially the ones featuring Jeeves. His collection has been left with a cousin of mine, and I hope to read them all someday.

[Kullervo]

Like all great cultures, France has its modernists, its conservatives, and its free spirits. Modernists like Zola advocate change and provoke. In the light of history, they more often than not come up short: their rigid views eventually appear stale. Free spirits like Anatole France or André Gide are agents of forward momentum. They in turn are held in check by the tradition-minded conservatives (like Paul Valéry). In between sit wishy-washy sensualists like Proust.

I think Proust was very much an agent of forward momentum, even if in his writing he is obsessed with the past.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

On loan from the library

The Jeeves Omnibus, Vol. 1, containing Thank You, Jeeves, The Code of Woosters, and The Inimitable Jeeves.

P. G. Wodehouse

I've never read Wodehouse before. But I remember my grandfather telling me how he enjoyed his works, especially the ones featuring Jeeves. His collection has been left with a cousin of mine, and I hope to read them all someday.

P.G. Wodehouse is great. Reading him is sheer joy, even apart from the humour. I don't know how he does it, but his choice of words is exquisite and his sentences are immaculate.