What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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sonic1

Quote from: DavidW on May 27, 2007, 12:17:57 PM


Fiction:
White Noise by Don DeLillo-- this is brilliant!  Has anyone else here read this novel?  I usually don't like idea novels, but this one was so hysterical and so true.




DeLillo is great. I loved WN as well as MaoII, Underworld, and a few others. You really can't go wrong with DeLillo.

Kullervo

Article in the latest issue of National Geographic on the founding of Jamestown. Really mind-blowing stuff!

carlos

John L. Snell's "Dilemma Over Germany" (The Hauser Press,New
Orleans,1959). An erudite and very well documented study on
the political problems, plans, discussions and resolutions
between FDR,WCH and JS on the future of Germany after the
victory. Very well written and clear.  ;) ;)
Piantale a la leche hermano, que eso arruina el corazón! (from a tango's letter)

Danny

Poetry of Pound and Manley Hopkins among others.  Both are delightful, and are original masters of language and imagery.

SonicMan46

Only those interested in Country Music should peruse this post -  ;D

Just started Bill Malone's newly revised edition of Country Music, U.S.A. - read the first edition (1968) many years ago; this 'new' edition appears to be mainly an additional chapter bringing the music (performers etc.) up-to-date (i.e. 2002) - CLICK on the image for Amazonian comments, which are not too helpful (ignore the one about the writing being boring!) - Malone is a retired professor (Tulane University) and writes in an 'academic' fashion - this is a detailed book and takes time; probably the best coverage of the origins of country music, the early & mid-20th century performers, and into the 1960s - not a quick or easy read but w/ a wealth of detail.

BTW, another shorter & more recent book by Malone is also highly recommended: Don't Get above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class (Music in American Life) - great pic on the front cover of the young Hank Williams, Jr. lookin' up @ this father -  :)

 

head-case

Quote from: Danny on May 29, 2007, 01:53:59 PM
Poetry of Pound and Manley Hopkins among others.  Both are delightful, and are original masters of language and imagery.

Indeed, Pound was a delightful fascist, Nazi, and propagandist for genocide. 

Bogey

Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 23, 2007, 01:38:06 PM
Re-reading




(hence the avatar)

bwv
Did not know if you were aware of this book about China....sounded interesting:



Here is an interview with the author from today on the radio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10474172
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Steve

Quote from: Kullervo on May 24, 2007, 07:49:21 AM
Continuing my current Hesse binge...




I went through a similar phase a while back. I read Siddartha in German, an incredible experience.  :)

George


Kullervo

Picked this up from the library... Eliot - Selected Prose




Bunny

Beach reading:

Stephen Frey: The 4th Order

Only for the most credulous, and those willing to believe in any conspiracy theory.  I can't swallow the idea of a venture capitalist (!) who doesn't have time for his kids and goes in to seal a deal the day after his wife is killed while his kids are home alone with a nanny as a hero.  Moreover, the idea that he's going to break up a government plot to abuse civil liberties is laughable.  It's not a fast or compelling read either; I don't know if I can even finish it.  I'm just afraid that idiots may assume that the book is really about the government and the Patriot Act.  NOT RECOMMENDED - even for the beach.




Steve

Quote from: Kullervo on May 29, 2007, 08:01:04 PM
Picked this up from the library... Eliot - Selected Prose





Excellent choice!

We seem to have quite similar literary tastes.  :)


op.110



A great book. Every other line, or every line, is an aphorism. Wilde is so wise and logical. And look... it's Liszt on the cover!

Florestan

Quote from: op.110 on May 29, 2007, 09:48:08 PM


A great book. Every other line, or every line, is an aphorism. Wilde is so wise and logical. And look... it's Liszt on the cover!

Agreed about the book. But I wonder what's Liszt go to do with it?  ???
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Steve

Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..



My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..

George

Quote from: Florestan on May 29, 2007, 10:27:22 PM
Agreed about the book. But I wonder what's Liszt go to do with it?  ???

Wasn't he more than a bit vain?

Bunny

Quote from: Steve on May 29, 2007, 11:20:57 PM
Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..



My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..

I had to read that in college, 100 years ago.  It was one of the better books my English teacher had us reading.

Kullervo

Quote from: Steve on May 29, 2007, 11:20:57 PM
Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..



My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..

I, too was in the middle of A Recherche du Temps Perdu, but I took a break after Within a Budding Grove. I can say without exaggeration that Swann's Way is the greatest thing I've ever read.

Steve

Quote from: Kullervo on May 30, 2007, 05:45:42 AM
I, too was in the middle of A Recherche du Temps Perdu, but I took a break after Within a Budding Grove. I can say without exaggeration that Swann's Way is the greatest thing I've ever read.

Having battled with endless sentences, tricky phrasings, and strangely technical diction, I wholeheartedly agree.

Harvested Sorrow

I'm currently finishing up the Dune series (reading Heretics of Dune now), Faust, and getting a bit side-tracked by the Tao Te Ching and books on various aspects of Buddhism.