What are you currently reading?

[Kullervo]

2666.  Not done yet.  Quite odd.

I read that a couple months ago. I still can't make my mind up as to whether it's a sprawling masterpiece or a meandering mess.

[Kullervo]

Starting this instead:

I give up. I really just don't like this sort of writing.

Starting this:

[nut-job]

I read that a couple months ago. I still can't make my mind up as to whether or not it's a sprawling masterpiece or a meandering mess.

NY Times listed it as one of the top 10 books of the year, so there must be something to it (or so you would think).

[Opus106]

An Easter gift from my wife:

Wow. Would love to have a look into that.


Thread duty:

*Continuing from where I stopped in Chapter 4 a couple of weeks ago.*

Phantoms in the Brain
V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

This is such an amazing account of how Dr. Ramachandran (and others) came to find out the possible neurological causes of the phenomenon called phantom limb syndrome. (For those who are not aware of it, in short, it refers to sensations felt in some part of the body that is non-existent, either having been surgically removed/lost in accident at some point in time or missing from birth! I first came across it in a BBC documentary about the brain a few years ago. It was unbelievable.) Even astounding are the experiments that he has devised over the years to discover more about the various cases he has encountered, and in some cases he was even able to cure his patients from their phantom pain. It's the simplicity of it all - you can "buy" these experiments from your friendly, neighbourhood department stores. But don't let that undermine the value of Dr. Ramachandran's work, he's certainly not a crackpot; his emphasis is (again) on the simplicity. One does not always need an MRI scan to do cutting-edge research in neurology. Of course, modern technology does help in actually pinning the details. Trying to find out more about strange sensations, he delves deeper into the realm of the human mind.

The book is written in an entertaining way and is very much intended for the layperson, but anyone interested in such matters as how the brain works can take a lot from it. He does occasionally makes use of a few "terms from the trade," but does not go overboard with it. And all the explanations are made through case studies. (Actually, each "patient" he describes is a "mixture" of patients who have consulted him.)

I attended a public lecture by him, last year. It was as interesting as the book, to say the least. You can find more about his work at his website.

[Frumaster]

I just started Don Quixote recently.  Translated by Edith Grossman, red cover.  I saw the play 'Man from La Mancha' years ago, but never read the book.  So far it is fascinating!  I'm about 200 pages into it now.

[rubio]

I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

[Cato]

I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

Thomas Pynchon is a victim of believing what the professors have to say about himself and many other things.

The ultimate question for his books is: if the gleaned story behind the style were brought forth, would it have the virtue of interest?

[karlhenning]

An Easter gift from my wife:

Looks a handsome book, Bill!

[orbital]

I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

Add me to the list. I've started Vineland some time ago, but did not go through it. Still, I would like to give it another chance sometime.

[bwv 1080]

I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

I have read everything but "V" (but am stalled about 75% through Against the Day)

Would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 as anyone's first Pynchon book - its only a 150 pages or so and is a great read

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.  To me the only way to read Pynchon is as its a sophisticated fantasy or sci-fi book, he is a fantastic writer with a great imagination, but if you are looking for profound, moral serious work, look elsewhere (like WG Sebald or WT Vollmann)

[jwinter]

I just started Don Quixote recently.  Translated by Edith Grossman, red cover.  I saw the play 'Man from La Mancha' years ago, but never read the book.  So far it is fascinating!  I'm about 200 pages into it now.

I started that about a year ago, and got maybe half-way through.  I need to pick that back up, I quite enjoyed it.  I tried several translations and settled on the old John Ormsby, available on Project Gutenberg and lots of other places.  I liked his sense of wit.

I'm currently 3/4 of the way through Merill Peterson's Jefferson & the New Nation.  Excellent, definitely the best one-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson around.  I read Dumas Malone's 6 volume whopper over a summer a while back, but this is good to refresh the memory and get a fresh perspective on some things.

[Bogey]

Wow. Would love to have a look into that.

Looks a handsome book, Bill!

Though there are color photos throughout, the rendering of them is so-so due to the semi-gloss paper.  Seems to have not captured the true striking colors one perceives with these type of manuscripts.  However, the text so far has been fascinating.  It takes a look at books being made from about the Dark Ages up to and possibly through(?) the advent of the printing press in the 1400's.   Basically the book says it is looking at the Middle Ages, and all the genres within, including even secular romances. Here are the table of contents, as the book does not go chronologically, but rather by who the books were for, and then I believe chronological under each of these headings, as I just made it through the intro last night:

Books for missionaries;
Books for emperors;
Books for monks;
Books for students;
Books for aristocrats;
Books for everybody;
Books for priests;
Books for collectors.

Almost a coffee table book in size and difficult to curl up with.

[Cato]

I have read everything but "V" (but am stalled about 75% through Against the Day)

Would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 as anyone's first Pynchon book - its only a 150 pages or so and is a great read

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.  To me the only way to read Pynchon is as its a sophisticated fantasy or sci-fi book, he is a fantastic writer with a great imagination, but if you are looking for profound, moral serious work, look elsewhere (like WG Sebald or WT Vollmann)

W.G. Sebald is highly recommended! 

[Florestan]

Just finished Conrad's The Rover. Excellent, as it was to be expected from him.

[orbital]

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.

Weird. Foucault's Pendulum is one of my all time favorite novels. It was probably the only book I've read even while riding in high rise elevators -unable to put it down  0:)

[Florestan]

Foucault's Pendulum is one of my all time favorite novels. It was probably the only book I've read even while riding in high rise elevators -unable to put it down  0:)

I finished it in two days and have re-read it about six or seven times. 

[Kullervo]

Interesting. Very Proustian in its long, rhapsodic and musical sentences (often with parentheses within parentheses!) and its focus on memory and how our lives are brought to fullness through our sensory perceptions. Even so, its fragmentary nature and tantalizing brevity make it seem ultimately a bit slight. It feels more like a sketch for a larger work than it does a complete entity unto itself, but I am intrigued enough to read more of his work.

reading now:

[Bu]

[Diletante]

Reading "Defensa Apasionada del Idioma Español" (Passionate Defense of the Spanish Language) by Álex Grijelmo.



It's basically "Cato's Grammar Grumble" in Spanish.

[val]

"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.