What are you currently reading?

[orbital]

... 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!

I only have a vague recollection of Coriolanus and have not read LRR, but they are both warriors. Is there anything else that bonds them together?

Currently reading:The Out of Print Publications of JD Salinger. Although the ones that I've read are not at the level of those in Nine Stories...

allow me to modify this a little bit. As I read further into the book, there are some profound ones. The Heart of a Broken Story, for example. Seldom have I read such intelligently written short story about love in a tongue-in-cheek or even cynical way although on the surface it may remind the reader of a typical O Henry story. This man's ability to convey the mood with such simple storytelling never ceases to amaze me.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I only have a vague recollection of Coriolanus and have not read LRR, but they are both warriors. Is there anything else that bonds them together?

I think Coriolanus has more to do with an earlier Jezetha, and Aragorn more with the current one. Coriolanus has a dominant, truculent mother (so have I), is arrogant (I was), despises the 'common herd' (I did), is too honest and outspoken to play politics (still am, mostly). Aragorn, in the end, fulfils his destiny... Yes, both are warriors. But life, to me, is struggle, and in art, too, conflict creates movement and insight. Though it isn't fashionable to say so, I admire heroism, in art, in life... That's why I love Beethoven, Wagner and Brian possibly above all others.

[mozartsneighbor]

The Best of Saki, by Saki (H.H. Munro)

This is one of the best out of the blue discoveries I have made lately -- I just picked it up at the the library because it had a glowing foreword by Tom Sharpe, who is one of my favorite comic writers.
As it happens, these early 20th century short stories are cruelly funny, mysterious, and written in a brilliant and inimitable style.
Highly recommended! As the blurb from Graham Greene on the back cover puts it "They dazzle and delight" -- right on Mr. Greene.

[ezodisy]

If I can mention the few characters I can relate to, or have related to - Shakespeare's Coriolanus

me too. This play had a big influence about 5 years ago. However I don't necessarily relate to any of his specifics, if any at all. It's more the sense of very complex frustration and tragedy which brings me close to it for whatever reason. I like the bellicose mood too

[orbital]

I think Coriolanus has more to do with an earlier Jezetha, and Aragorn more with the current one. Coriolanus has a dominant, truculent mother (so have I), is arrogant (I was), despises the 'common herd' (I did), is too honest and outspoken to play politics (still am, mostly). Aragorn, in the end, fulfils his destiny... Yes, both are warriors. But life, to me, is struggle, and in art, too, conflict creates movement and insight. Though it isn't fashionable to say so, I admire heroism, in art, in life... That's why I love Beethoven, Wagner and Brian possibly above all others.

Our choices for artists and performers may very well be a mirror into our own psyches. Perhaps, the reason I like Hamlet that much (again, apart from it being a literary wonder) while King Lear is perhaps a greater tragedy. Or why I care more about Esch than Pasenow in The Sleepwalkers while Pasenow was the one that deserved a better resolution in the traditional sense.
For me, life does not carry any more meaning than its physical manifestation, and, thus with regards to art, I just like to marvel the artist who does his job exceedingly well 

[Kullervo]

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...

You've stated it exactly. I suppose it's still an attribute of my age that I look for myself in my reading (probably why I relate so much to Proust and why the quote in my signature feels so relevant). I absolutely loved the style — I've never read anything like it.

[jamesjoyce]

Platonov, Soul

Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

Sartre, Nausea

Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory (with an intro by the vastly overrated American writer John Updike)

[Anne]

I can't at the moment remember the title of the book Updike wrote, but he was talking about abuses in the meat industry - in this case the paucity of chicken in a can of chicken soup and he said,

"the only connection a chicken may have had with the soup is that it may have walked through it with its boots on."

[M forever]

You are maybe thinking of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".

[knight66]

"the only connection a chicken may have had with the soup is that it may have walked through it with its boots on."

I don't recall anything like that in 'The Jungle' It seemed to be about rather larger scale food sources.....everything about the pig was used except the squeek.

Nor am I sure there was even hangman's humour in it.

[Anne]

You are maybe thinking of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".

Yes, I was.  Thanks, M.

[Anne]

I don't recall anything like that in 'The Jungle' It seemed to be about rather larger scale food sources.....everything about the pig was used except the squeek.

Nor am I sure there was even hangman's humour in it.

I don't know what to tell you, knight.  That is my memory of it.  We had to read it for an econ class.  If I run into the book again, I will reread it.

[Kullervo]

Lethe's enthusiasm for Gothic architecture prompted me to pick this up from the library:



Nice, large color photos — should make for a nice divertissment from Ulysses. I am most interested in the Romanesque aspect, as I can't think of any examples that I know of Romanesque architecture (no doubt due to its relative unpopularity for not being as "beautiful" as Gothic buildings and the lack of modern-day copycats). 

[Lethevich]

Your library seems better than mine

[orbital]

I purchased all of Atwood's e-books recently, and this was the first on my list to read from her (having read and loved The Handmaid's Tale). An excellent book so far. It is actually a novel within a novel within a novel, each of whose story line could not have been more different than the next. And amazingly Ms Atwood uses completely different writing techniques for each story (and author within the novel), which is a testament to what a great writer she is.

[SonicMan46]

Sweet Soul Music (1986/1999) by Peter Guralnick - just getting started w/ this rather detailed book on the birth of soul music w/ an emphasis on Memphis, TN - a recent visit for my wife & I - fascinating city & musical history (see my comments in the vacation and the eating threads, if interested) -

[M forever]

I spent an entire evening a few days ago reading the Stalin article on wikipedia, and checking out many of the links to events and persons relevant to that subject. Wikipedia is such a paradise for someone like me who has to compulsively look up stuff when he hears about it. Even better than the Encyclopaedia Britannica DVD edition.


Anyway, that reminded me that I have for a long time wanted to read up more on the history of the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution, etc.
Last year, I read about half of this book:



Which might be a good book to pick up again and finish some time. The author, a Harvard historian has written some more books about the same subject.


In the Stalin article and many of the linked articles, these books by a gentleman named Montefiore are often mentioned:







Hmm...looks a little bit like Saul.


Anyway, does anyone know these or any other good books about these subjects?

[Anne]

I think any book written by Solzhenitsyn would be good.

[mozartsneighbor]

Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Just finished it. I had to read it in highschool but didn't really appreciate it back then, but it is a very good book. It is mind-boggling that she and her work fell into obscurity for decades.
The blurb on the back cover that the book "belongs in the same category with that of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway of enduring American literature" doesn't seem like hyperbole at all.

[rockerreds]

Philip K. Dick-Martian Time-Slip