What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

Well, thanks for your input, gents.

. . . Particularly with Her Fearful Symmetry, where all the US hardback editions (illustrated with faded photos of Highgate Cemetery and artificially aged title pages) have such a physical presence that they actively contribute to the atmosphere of the book. In fact, I hope to proceed to post some photos of my newly acquired US Special signed edition (designed by the author) before long.

You tipped the balance here, Alan, and I have relented.  I cracked the book open, and will begin a-reading . . . .

[Elgarian]

Well, thanks for your input, gents.

You tipped the balance here, Alan, and I have relented.  I cracked the book open, and will begin a-reading . . . .

Karl, I stand here (well, sit actually), hand on heart (but not actually while I'm typing), and I say: "This will make you a better person."

[Elgarian]

(Hard tho' that may be to imagine.)

[Elgarian]

So here's a glimpse of the US Special (signed) Edition of Her Fearful Symmetry. Like the UK edition (see #4667 above), it was designed by Niffenegger (who is as formidable as an artist as she is as a novelist), but represents a completely different design concept. Here, the dust jacket is based on a painting by the author, and the design is deeply embossed into the paper. The page edges are black; a pale photograph of a sepulchral monument decorates the end papers. Both these special editions give me tingles up the spine when I pick them up and handle them, each in quite different ways.

       

 

[Geo Dude]

I finished reading Best Short Stories of William Kittredge.  Review here.

[Kontrapunctus]

[Philoctetes]

The Poet and the President by Coyle

Got a bit distracted with some of my school reading.

The Poet and the President by Coyle was not the book that I thought it was going to be. It's more of a historical recording of Whitman and Lincoln. It contains mostly primary sourcing, so for that it's aces. It also contains a lot of criticism surrounding Whitman in regards to Lincoln which is also historical. This is really a sound book for historians interested in Whitman, but it doesn't really offer any sort of insight, and not much is left to be drawn from what is seen. I was sort of hoping for more of an overarching sort of theoretical book, but for what it is, it's pretty amazing.

All in all: 5 out of 5

I also read Walt Whitman's Camden Conversations which was edited by Walter Teller and Readings on Walt Whitman which was edited by Gary Wiener. Neither of these books were that great. I'd definitely not suggest either. Teller edited the Conversations in an odd ways, and instead of allowing them to occur organically, he put them under subheadings, so it reads more like a word-of-the-day calender. Wiener edited the book so it appeared to not be coherent at all, and was simply a hodgepodge of essays assembled because a book needed to be made.

All in all (for both): 2 out of 5

Currently reading:
Organizational Sociology edited by Scott (selections)
Tocqueville's Road Map by Boesche
Selected Poems by Carl Sandburg (Lincoln)
Coping with Minority Status edited by Fabrizio Butera and John Levine (selections)
The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen by Alexander Herzen (selections)
Russian Thinkers by Isaiah Berlin
Isiah Berlin by George Crowder (selections)
Psychologism by Martin Kusch
Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychologism edited by Dale Jacquette
Europe Old and New by Ray Taras
The Migration Apparatus by Gregory Feldman
The European Unioin edited by Brent Nelsen
The Euro edited by Amy Verdun (selections)
Building Sci-Fi Moviescapes by Matt Hanson

[Coco]

Red Pine's erudition is really astounding — his translation is taken from several different Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan sources, and he uses commentary from the greatest Zen masters of the past to help illuminate this beautiful and important text for the reader.

[Geo Dude]

I just started on this yesterday:



I'm glad I conducted some informal research (at Amazon) and spent a few bucks more for a copy of a great translation.  It's been excellent thus far.

[Todd]

OK, not really.  But I did read the long excerpt from the book in the most recent New Yorker.  It's like no time had passed since reading Master of the Senate.  My only issue is that the book doesn't conclude the biography, going only until 1964.  I'm wondering who, if anyone, will receive the Coke Stevenson and Richard Russell mini-biography this time.

Haven't been this excited for a bio since HW Brands' Traitor to His Class.  (I guess that wasn't too long ago.) 

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.

[Fëanor]

Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 11:17:45>Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.


Me too.  I'll read it again soon for the fourth or fifth time.

On the other hand, after a couple of them, I found the endless series of compilations of J.R.R.'s works by Christopher Tolkien pretty tedious.

[Karl Henning]

The Lays of Beleriand and Unfinished Tales I like very well, too.  Although I have both volumes of The Book of Lost Tales on my shelf (and have had, for quite a while), I've never been able / felt motivated to dig into them.

[DavidW]

Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 11:17:45>Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.


Me too.  I'll read it again soon for the fourth or fifth time.

On the other hand, after a couple of them, I found the endless series of compilations of J.R.R.'s works by Christopher Tolkien pretty tedious.

I like the Silmarillion and avoid that series like the plague!  I also like the Children of Hurin which is a short novel expanded from the original story in the Silmarillion.

[Karl Henning]

I like the Silmarillion and avoid that series like the plague!  I also like the Children of Hurin which is a short novel expanded from the original story in the Silmarillion.

If you like Tolkien's turn with poetry (and not everyone does), you might want to give The Lays of Beleriand a shot.  The heart of the book is extensive poetic treatments of both Narn i Hin Húrin and the Lay of Leithian (the story of Beren and Lúthien).

[Scion7]

Four issues of the Hammer fanzine  Little Shoppe of Horrors  that I didn't order at the time they were published because I got behind in 'life.'

Volume II of John Toland's  The Rising Sun - specifically, the sections concerning Battle of Leyte Gulf.

And finally, spot-reading my biography on Bartok by Chalmers.

[Ataraxia]

In the mood for some fantasy, so...
[asin]B004L9MFG8[/asin]

[DavidW]

If you like Tolkien's turn with poetry (and not everyone does), you might want to give The Lays of Beleriand a shot.  The heart of the book is extensive poetic treatments of both Narn i Hin Húrin and the Lay of Leithian (the story of Beren and Lúthien).

That reminds me Karl, as nook friends we can lend each other books!  I saw that feature yesterday, it's really cool!  Most of my ebooks are on the kindle unfortunately, and out of my nook books the only one with the lending feature is the Hunger Games, sorry dude.

[Coco]

[Ataraxia]

Dude, get out of the 19th Century.