What are you currently reading?

[Geo Dude]

Read this in order to review it for the Musical Reference Services Quarterly. Wonderfully informative, fascinating anthology of source documents;  priced for the institutional market, no question.  Almost can't believe that the fellow who "reviewed" it on Amazon seems to have mistaken his umbrage at the price, for a discussion of the book's merits.  Even more horrified that his idea of "a better deal" is the MacDonald.

[asin]184383703X[/asin]

This looks quite interesting.  It's too bad that the Amazon reviewer seems unfamiliar with the use of inter-library loans.  I hope that people don't skim the title, see the two star review and refuse to read it without even checking out the review.

Thread duty:

[listener]

Your post's comment about Edogawa's status in Japan got me interested, and in my thumbnail-intro reading, I came across his involvement with "ero guro nansensu".  Now I really am interested!  I know nothing of his writing, but now I am keyed up to read him.

Do you know some other Edogawa as well?  Is there an ideal way to start with him in English?

That was my first encounter, inspired by the review in the Japan Times. ( http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/19/books/ranpos-novella-of-a-desecrated-grave-continues-to-send-shivers/#.Ua-Fqn5rbIU ).   I was interested in the panorama as an entertainment medium and the possibility of some technical background, and a low price (I used abebooks.com for the free shipping) got the "buy now".  This is a nice edition with its good introduction and translation, a favourable start for me.    Possibly a film version (in Japanese, unsubtitled) at http://www.yesasia.com/us/search/edogawa-ranpo/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.Edogawa+Ranpo-en/list.html#

[Wakefield]

Plato--The Republic--for the third time in 5 or 6 years. All his dialogues are riveting.
Reading this, years ago, was the reason I changed my college major the day after I finished the book.

The allegory of the cave in your own flesh.... 

It would be great if these revelations/glares were more usual in the philosophical field (and not so frequent in religious matters). 

[listener]

arrived this morning from the LSO, signed by  the author, Gareth Davies
The Show Must Go On: On Tour with the LSO in 1912 and 2012.   Davies is a flautist whose blog from inside the orchestra makes for a good read.   It just came in, I have not yet read this (but would not have bought it if I didn't think I would enjoy it), posting to gloat over the early arrival.

[Bogey]

You need to report on the 1912 run.  I bet it is fascinating.

[lisa needs braces]

Ian M. Banks has passed away.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/09/iain_m_banks_dies_of_cancer/

The first book in the Culture series has been sitting on my shelf unread far too long...

[Bogey]

Hey -abe- and Karl, just restarted Oliver Twist.  About half way through.  I would not put it at the level of A Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield, but a nice read.

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Bill!

[lisa needs braces]

Hey -abe- and Karl, just restarted Oliver Twist.  About half way through.  I would not put it at the level of A Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield, but a nice read.

You guys ever hear of this novel? Haven't read it myself yet.

"Drood" by Dan Simmons.

http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Dan-Simmons/dp/B005EP26IK

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?

[Bogey]

You guys ever hear of this novel? Haven't read it myself yet.

"Drood" by Dan Simmons.

http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Dan-Simmons/dp/B005EP26IK

Where is MNDave when you need him.    Sounds pretty creepy.  I do not know much about Dickens, so maybe I need to change that.

[Octave]

That Dan Simmons sounds very cool.  I've been meaning to read those of his books whose universe adapts Shakespeare and Ancient Greek mythos to an epic SF milieu.  Several friends have recommended it as wildly inventive and ambitious. 

[MishaK]

Started reading Little Dorrit by Dickens.

[Bogey]

Started reading Little Dorrit by Dickens.

Dickens sighting!  Report when you can.

[val]

HANS KÜNG:      " Das Christentum. Wesen und Geschichte"

An History of Christianism, trying to define what is really essential in this religion. Küng sees Christianism as a religion - the only one - based not only in a set of rules and dogmas but, more than that, in the existential reality of the life and death of Jesus, as example and model of life for all Christians. It is also a book very severe to the Church, in the past and the present.

[lisa needs braces]

About 11 months ago I read Russel Banks' latest novel: Lost Memory of Skin.  It was on display at a library and the interesting cover and author's name compelled me to pick it up. The only other work by Banks' I read was Rule of the Bone, and I had seen the film adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter.

Anyway, Lost Memory of Skin has to be one of the most surreal novels I've read. It's about a young man living in Florida who is a homeless registered sex offender and a genius sociology professor who takes interest in him. It's a literary novel with engaging prose and I found myself reading it like a page turner.

Recommended.



http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Memory-Skin-Russell-Banks/dp/B00A1ACXG8/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371273691&sr=1-4

[CaughtintheGaze]

Taking somewhat of a break from my research and am loving this:

[jlaurson]

Taking somewhat of a break from my research and am loving this:

A book subject to perhaps the worst book review I've ever read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub

(The author's name of this moronic tripe should not be omitted: Robert Stoddard. Robert H. Stoddard, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 (well, in 1988, at least).)

[CaughtintheGaze]

A book subject to perhaps the worst book review I've ever read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub

(The author's name of this moronic tripe should not be omitted: Robert Stoddard. Robert H. Stoddard, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 (well, in 1988, at least).)

That's priceless.

[Ten thumbs]

I do not know much about Dickens, so maybe I need to change that.

It's good for Dickens that he was such a brilliant writer. Otherwise  his appalling behavior towards his wife would utterly condemn him.

[Brian]

It's good for Dickens that he was such a brilliant writer. Otherwise  his appalling behavior towards his wife would utterly condemn him.

I'm just reading a New York Times book review about an English author who truly sets the bar for terrible behavior toward women. He decided to enslave little girls and train them to be the perfect wives... and from their the story only gets weirder.