What are you currently reading?

[Philoctetes]

Mahu by Pinget
The Writing of the Disaster by Blanchot

The Shklovsky and the Markson were very good reads. A style that I truly love: digressive.

[mozartsneighbor]

Shakespeare -- A Life, by Park Honan
So far (about halfway through) quite good.

[Haffner]

Still big into Howard Phillips

[orbital]

Beautiful Losers was a bit of a let down  There was some nice prose here and there, but overall the stream of consciousness writing was not put to very good use, IMHO.

Currently reading:The Out of Print Publications of JD Salinger. About 20 or so short stories mostly dealing with specific scenes and situations between two people. Although the ones that I've read are not at the level of those in Nine Stories, the initial Glass family chronicle: Hapworth 16, 1924 is included here as the final story.

[SonicMan46]

Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered (2008) by Peter Wells - just getting started w/ an unusually 'short' (256 pgs) book on this broad topic - covers basically 400-800 A.D. w/ an updated look at the period based on recent archeological discoveries - mostly decent Amazonian Reviews - 

[M forever]

That looks interesting. A fascinating epoch in history, all the more since many things still are not known about the Dark Ages. Maybe I'll get that.

[SonicMan46]

That looks interesting. A fascinating epoch in history, all the more since many things still are not known about the Dark Ages. Maybe I'll get that.

Hello M - the book is so far quite interesting, and will likely be a good overview - if you're interested in this period, the Teaching Company has a wonderful lecture series on the Middle Ages given by Philip Daileader, a Professor at William & Mary College (Williamsburg, VA) - I currently own the High Middle Ages DVD series (24 30-minute lectures) - purchased for $69 when on sale; the Early Middle Ages DVD series is on sale at present for the same price (and same instructor), which would cover the period in the book - might be an upcoming purchase for me! Dave 

[M forever]

Is that an audio book or a video?

[SonicMan46]

Is that an audio book or a video?

Check out the link - plenty of different options; I usually buy these programs in the DVD format which is a little more expensive; but these programs are available as audio CDs, cassette tapes, or as audio downloads - again, these are 'lecture series' programs, like goin' to college, but I've found the vast majority of these lecturers (typically well known college professors) quite good & entertaining - the guy who gives the talks on the Middle Ages is superb.  Again, if you are interested & have not ordered any of these lecture series before, wait until they are on sale. 

[Philoctetes]

I've moved on from Blanchot, whose writing I found turgid and unreliable. You could easily tell which school he had sided with.

Next:
Feuerbach's Principles of the Philosophy of the Future
Baudelaire's Paris Spleen

[DavidW]

Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types.

Ghost Road Blues for me.  I did read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but I don't know if it counts because it's easy to read and appreciate at either symbolic or literal level!

[karlhenning]

Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types.

Well, we're still friends, David 

[Haffner]

Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types.

Ghost Road Blues for me.  I did read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but I don't know if it counts because it's easy to read and appreciate at either symbolic or literal level!

Does H.P. Lovecraft count as pulp fiction? And if so, does that mean we're still friends, Karl ?

[karlhenning]

Andy, not even that quirky Rhode Islander could pretend to interpose in our friendship 

[DavidW]

Does H.P. Lovecraft count as pulp fiction? And if so, does that mean we're still friends, Karl ?

Lovecraft is enjoyable to read, so I guess that's fine.

It's like that Millenium episode, it must be "enlightening yet entertaining" and yes I am making fun of myself.

[Haffner]

Andy, not even that quirky Rhode Islander could pretend to interpose in our friendship 

Dann ist mein Leben sehr gut!

[Kullervo]

James Joyce - Ulysses

Finally finished Portrait after taking an unusually long time to read it due both to moving to a new house and the general malaise that's been hanging around as of late (must be the season). I enjoyed it, but I would be hard pressed to say I could relate to it. Stephen and I had very different adolescences.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

James Joyce - Ulysses

Finally finished Portrait after taking an unusually long time to read it due both to moving to a new house and the general malaise that's been hanging around as of late (must be the season). I enjoyed it, but I would be hard pressed to say I could relate to it. Stephen and I had very different adolescences.

But did you enjoy the way it is written? I don't relate to Stephen that much either, although I can understand artistic ambition and trying to think for yourself. But I didn't have a Catholic upbringing, nor did I grow up in a stifling country (to a certain point...). I don't, as a rule, look for characters to look like me. I want the writer to convince me of their reality. If he or she succeeds, I am fascinated and pleased. And I learn something about human diversity.

Good luck with Ulysses...

[orbital]

... I don't, as a rule, look for characters to look like me. I want the writer to convince me of their reality....

I agree, but to be able to relate to the character(s) do make books more enjoyable for me. Probably why The Man Without Qualitites, The Stranger and Steppenwolf are among the top fiction books I've read -apart from them being literary wonders, of course.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I agree, but to be able to relate to the character(s) do make books more enjoyable for me. Probably why The Man Without Qualitites, The Stranger and Steppenwolf are among the top fiction books I've read -apart from them being literary wonders, of course.

Because I am a writer myself, I have always more identified with certain artists than with any of their creations. The way each of them grappled with the great questions of self, world, life and art have inspired me and fortified me. If I can mention the few characters I can relate to, or have related to - Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Tolkien's Aragorn... Make of this what you want!