What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America

So, was US a clever invention of the moment, or something that just grew naturally from its historical premises? 

[not edward]

A bit over half-way through, and I'm still not really sure what to make of this yet: an affectionate parody of the detective noir genre, viewed through a marijuana haze. I guess it feels to me like Pynchon Lite, comparatively easy to read, but also disappointingly sparing with the moments of genius that litter the best of his work.

[Brahmsian]

At the used book store I'm applying to work at:

The Ring of the Nibelung (German libretto text with English translation), by Andrew Porter




How to Win in the Chess Openings - by I.A. Horowitz (I need help with my chess opening skills)

[bhodges]

Alex Ross: Listen to This - Most of this book is made up of earlier pieces from The New Yorker, but the first two--the title essay, and "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History"--are new. 

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Alex Ross: Listen to This - Most of this book is made up of earlier pieces from The New Yorker, but the first two--the title essay, and "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History"--are new.

Thanks for that info, Bruce! . . . so at this point, even though I have not reached the end of the book, I've read all the new material, eh? . . .

[Todd]

I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.

[bhodges]

Thanks for that info, Bruce! . . . so at this point, even though I have not reached the end of the book, I've read all the new material, eh? . . .

If I read the intro correctly (i.e., was reading fast  ), that's correct.  Some of the older pieces have been reworked slightly.

--Bruce

[jlaurson]

I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.

Something lost in translation, I reckon. "The Castle / The Lock" is one of the great novellas of its time. And it is not really about the survey, or what happens to K., et al. It's about vacuity... or eschatology (Brod), or totalitarianism (Adorno), or--as every Kafka novel, really--the psychology of authority in general.

If you hate this, you might also dislike "The Man Without Qualities" (Musil). 

[Todd]

And it is not really about the survey, or what happens to K., et al. It's about vacuity... or eschatology (Brod), or totalitarianism (Adorno), or--as every Kafka novel, really--the psychology of authority in general.

Yes, I'm aware of what it's really about; it is Kafka, after all.  The book just doesn't work for me.  It doesn't compare to The Trial, or some of Kafka's short stories, for instance.  Indeed, this is the first time that I've read something by Kafka that I didn't like.  And I really don't like it.

[rubio]

I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.

One of my favourite books. I find it funny to read about the extremely shy buerocrats at the castle, and all the trials of K. I found the Trial a bit grey (but great), but this one was surrealistic and funny. I laughed more than a few times when reading it.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Ordered this: http://goo.gl/PEaV9
Krzysztof Meyer - "Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Sein Leben, sein Werk, seine Zeit"



Anyone knowing? Not sure if it has been released in languages other than polish and german.

[DavidW]

For once instead of merely liking a novel, I was completely blown away by one and this despite having a cold... Neuromancer by William Gibson.  Screw the whole it won all three sf awards, screw the coining of cyberspacing and imagining our current internet culture, screw hacking into the matrix done before Keanu Reeves would dodge bullets in slowmo, screw feeling the noir-esque bladerunner vibe though it was written when bladerunner was in production... just set all of the history aside...

And just read the novel, in every way I can think of it is an amazing story.  I loved it.

[Scarpia]

Black Mischief, Evelyn Waugh.  Satirical story of a decadent, wealthy Englishman who discovers that his old roomate from Oxford is now the Emperor of a West African Country.  He travels there and together they set out to "modernize" the place, with disastrous results.  The low point involves a red beret noticed at an aboriginal banquet in the penultimate scene.  Well done.

[MN Dave]

Finished: CHILD OF GOD by McCarthy. Good stuff as usual.

Now: BLACKOUT by Connie Willis. Time travel to WWII England.

[Lethevich]

I've not finished the book, but I think I have to post now because this book is so boring I may never get the enthusiasm to read a book again.  "The Years" by Virginia Woolf. 

My lord, nothing, but nothing happens in this book.  I'm within 50 pages of the end, and the various characters seem to be at a party in which they are all rather annoyed with each other, and reminiscing about various monumental events, like having bumped into each other near Saint Paul's and having had lunch in a restaurant on the Strand, 20 years before. Again, 50 pages to go, maybe one of the characters will pull out a Thompson sub-machine gun and slaughter the whole lot.  I've got my fingers crossed.  (One of those books where 2/3 of the sentences are in the subjunctive.)

An update.  I read another 30 pages and there was some stunning action.  Someone looked out the window.  Hoping I'll finish it soon.

I would avoid To the Lighthouse, then, if this hasn't put you off her work completely.

[Scarpia]

I would avoid To the Lighthouse, then, if this hasn't put you off her work completely.

I've read To the Lighthouse.  I'm trying to maintain the pretense that I like Virginia Woolf, but it is getting difficult.   

[Philoctetes]

Currently trying to find decent books on Somalia, no luck so far, but I have a few to pick up tomorow.

In the mean time, more book son 21st century art: the last two volumes of art:21 and two volumes of the Whitney Biennial.

[jlaurson]

P.G. Wodehouse
Something Fresh
Everyman

[AndyD.]

I'm studying up on Schopenhauer as well as getting really deep into Bach's Sonatas and Partitas.

[karlhenning]

Just finished re-reading The Cyberiad