What are you currently reading?

[Wakefield]

Four days ago, I started this project: To read the six volumes of A History of Greek Philosophy (Spanish translation in three volumes) by W. K. C. Guthrie... I hope the gods join me on this journey.

[Drasko]

Both in Serbian translations. Got almost complete Bernard Prince series (2-14, minus first volume) for bargain at publishers sale recently.

[Wakefield]

Both in Serbian translations. Got almost complete Bernard Prince series (2-14, minus first volume) for bargain at publishers sale recently.

No, no, no, no, dear Drasko. If you want to read a great contemporary Chilean novelist, the right name is Roberto Bolaño.

Los detectives salvajes, if possible.

[Drasko]

No, no, no, no, dear Drasko. If you want to read a great contemporary Chilean novelist, the right name is Roberto Bolaño.

Los detectives salvajes, if possible.

Nocturno de Chile is on my shopping list. Unfortunately only that and 2666 is available here in translation currently (Putas Asesinas is also translated but long out of print).

You don't care for Sepulveda much? I'm rather enjoying that one, has certain sort of laconic, vignette-ish, storytelling which is refreshing from time to time. I was halfway through in one sitting, will finish it tonight.

[toledobass]

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Egleman.  Fascinating reading on consciousness and the brain.

I also just received Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye in the mail but it will probably be a bit before I dig into it.

[kishnevi]

Pete Brown: Shakespeare's Pub

A very chatty history of the George Inn in Southwark--it may or may not be the oldest surviving pub in London like the subtitle claims but it goes back a few centuries, at least, and he inserts as much as is known about the pub and its neighbors (one of which was Chaucer's Tabard, which survived, derelict at the end, until the late 1800s), together with relevant side topics,  off topic and often off color footnotes,  a nice amount of snark, and a consistent attempt to be scholarly without writing in a scholarly style--I'll be seeking out his other books, which seem to deal mostly with beer. 

Shakespeare, btw, is mostly a peg to hang a story on, an excuse to snark at the people who think Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare,  and a way  make a nice sounding title.  He lived in Southwark,  the Globe was in the neighborhood (although there were plenty of establishments offering solid and liquid provender even closer to the Globe) and, since you can't prove he never was in the George, you're free to assume he was there from time to time.

[Brian]

One of the worst books I've read this year. A contemptuous parable of tiresome, one-dimensional characters doing bad things to each other, studded with ignorant descriptions of baseball action, absurd villainy, misogyny that would be unpublishable today, and a tone that clumsily mishandles the combination of realism and cartoonish folk legend. There were occasional pleasures, but not enough to compensate for the overall failure of the work.

[mn dave]

Not this version. Scary clown novel, and pretty good so far.
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[Florestan]

misogyny that would be unpublishable today

Does it surpass Schopenhauer's? 

And, oh please: unpublishable reminds me of the Communist censorship... 

[mn dave]

One of the worst books I've read this year. A contemptuous parable of tiresome, one-dimensional characters doing bad things to each other, studded with ignorant descriptions of baseball action, absurd villainy, misogyny that would be unpublishable today, and a tone that clumsily mishandles the combination of realism and cartoonish folk legend. There were occasional pleasures, but not enough to compensate for the overall failure of the work.

Hey Brian, you might like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Moon-Ron-Faust/dp/0812522591/ref=la_B001HMTUEM_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382727963&sr=1-9

[Parsifal]

Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

Woolf seems to anticipate Seinfeld's invention of a show about nothing.

[Brian]

Bernard Malamud is one of my favorite writers.  But I have not read The Natural (saw the movie but that doesn't count).  He has some great books, The Fixer, The Assistant, and short stories (maybe try something else?).   Or it could be that his period is too far removed from your experience that it does not resonate with you.

I'd be surprised if it was being distant from the period; I've never had a problem finding resonance in Dostoevsky, or Dickens or Collins or any number of other authors even further from my own time and place. But I always have had a struggle, it's true, connecting with a certain group of American postwar authors - Malamud, Updike, Roth, DeLillo, Bellow. Perhaps it's just that the issues they obsess with (e.g., powerlessness and male sexuality) don't interest me in the slightest. Women in their universe seem to exist primarily to dispense or withhold sex - and the same is true in The Natural.

The prose was good enough I'd consider giving one of his other books a try, but not for a while. This one really raised my metaphorical hackles.

Hey Brian, you might like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Moon-Ron-Faust/dp/0812522591/ref=la_B001HMTUEM_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382727963&sr=1-9

$0.01 for a used copy? Hey, the price is right, I might try it out!

[Wakefield]

I'd be surprised if it was being distant from the period; I've never had a problem finding resonance in Dostoevsky, or Dickens or Collins or any number of other authors even further from my own time and place. But I always have had a struggle, it's true, connecting with a certain group of American postwar authors - Malamud, Updike, Roth, DeLillo, Bellow. Perhaps it's just that the issues they obsess with (e.g., powerlessness and male sexuality) don't interest me in the slightest. Women in their universe seem to exist primarily to dispense or withhold sex - and the same is true in The Natural.

The prose was good enough I'd consider giving one of his other books a try, but not for a while. This one really raised my metaphorical hackles.

Interesting posts, Brian.

As sanantonio I liked very much some short stories and one or two novels by Malamud, but until today I wasn't aware that one of my favorite movies (also titled The Natural, starred by Robert Redford) was an adaptation of Malamud.

I recall I watched that movie some 20 years ago and I simply loved it, as a sort of ellipsis of Rip van Winkle (!). I have no idea if the novel is close to that or not, but it was extraordinary (after all it's easier to make movies on bad books than using great novels). 
   

[Brian]

I recall I watched that movie some 20 years ago and I simply loved it, as a sort of ellipsis of Rip van Winkle (!). I have no idea if the novel is close to that or not, but it was extraordinary (after all it's easier to make movies on bad books than using great novels). 

I have not seen the movie, but the book ends unhappily and the movie ends happily. Hollywood endings!

[Wakefield]

I have not seen the movie, but the book ends unhappily and the movie ends happily. Hollywood endings!

Absolutely off-topic: Do you see the TV show How I met your mother?

[Brian]

Absolutely off-topic: Do you see the TV show How I met your mother?

I have seen every episode!

[Wakefield]

I have seen every episode!

Me too! The expression "happy ending" recalled me the question of how they will do to avoid the natural ending of this series: I mean Robin and Ted together.

[kishnevi]

While looking on Amazon for Pete Brown's other books, this caught my attention,  for the title alone.

[Fëanor]

String Theory for Dummies by Andrew Zimmerman Jones with Daniel Robbins

[listener]

"Penguin Psychology" by Robert Benchley
I was brought to a halt by a passage in the chapter 'The Bathroom Revolution'
    "Even in one small bathroom, when there are children in the house, one finds rocking horses, odd books, overshoes and skates, and once in a while, reefers and stocking caps belonging to neighbors' children..."