What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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SonicMan46

The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed - new book on the famous early 20th century American 'Tin Pan Alley' composers - CLICK on the image for comments - not too long & wonderful writing w/ great incite & humor - if you like this music, then this book is a MUST reading - enjoy!  :D


Danny



A good, sparse read so far.  Am wondering how the man who wants to create "a church without Christ" turns out.

sidoze

Borowski's concentration camp stories.


маразм1

I just read Sergei Dovlatov's collection of stories and short novels (Suitcase, the Compromise, A foreign Woman, etc)
Very interesting author, very cool stuff.  Its great that I could relate to what he described. 

With me, a good reading is whenever you read something, and the text invokes forgotten emotions in you.  I don't even know how to phrase it properly, but the whole reading was like a trip somewhere else, to the past, to the culture that I was lucky enough to witness when I was little...

Very interesting author who got his fame after he immigrated to the States.  I dont even read that much, or hardly ever.  I got this book for my b-day and just started reading it and couldnt stop!

d

Kullervo

Quote from: marazm1 on August 31, 2007, 07:25:57 AM
With me, a good reading is whenever you read something, and the text invokes forgotten emotions in you.  I don't even know how to phrase it properly, but the whole reading was like a trip somewhere else
d

I get that feeling from my favorite authors — Proust, Hesse, Gogol... with every sentence I read I feel that I'm closer to a kind of truth that I know but can't express in words.

I will look up Dovlatov, thanks.

Maciek


sidoze

Quote from: Maciek on August 31, 2007, 09:08:36 AM
How do you find them?

I was reading them on the train up and down to Cambridge and during lunch hours so I haven't finished and hope to complete the short collection this weekend. So far, very powerful, I suppose due to the straightforward and matter-of-fact style. The World of Stone is the one that pleased me the most so far. This sweet, affectionate vignette of a man teetering on the edge of post-war life seemed, in spite of its gentle tone, more overwhelming than the descriptions of actual life within the camps. It's beautiful.

Reading about how he gassed himself as his wife recovered from giving birth in hospital left me feeling pretty bitter though (especially after reading of their love and the whole Tristan and Isolde thing). I read that there are several conflicting and unclear reasons for his suicide. I don't wish to judge a man who wants to go; it's a personal thing and not a matter for debate. But I think if you're going to do it you should have a clean sheet and not be riddled with human debt like that. I was going to write that something like this belongs in one of the lower circles of hell. Then, upon checking, I found that it actually does belong to the ninth circle. That's memory & instinct for you.

Maciek

His suicide was a terrible shock for many people here. He was a sort of symbol of his whole generation, and in a way they considered it... a sort of treason on his part.

longears

Quote from: Danny on August 30, 2007, 12:27:29 PM
[Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood]
A good, sparse read so far.  Am wondering how the man who wants to create "a church without Christ" turns out.
Try her short stories.

Hollywood

"There are far worse things awaiting man than death."

A Hollywood born SoCal gal living in Beethoven's Heiligenstadt (Vienna, Austria).

Danny

Quote from: longears on September 01, 2007, 04:34:33 PM
Try her short stories.

I will, thank you!  Enjoyed Wise Blood and think it a provactive novel.  Hazel Motes and his desire at a "Church of Christ without Christ" was fascinating, and I think the attempts of the other characters to find their own personal meaning/use of him and his concept was........................disturbing, but profound.

Right now:


DavidW

Quote from: dtwilbanks on August 31, 2007, 05:20:30 AM


How is that David?

I'm reading



I've been on a Laymon kick for the past few months. :)

Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

sidoze


Keemun

I'm presently reading P.D. James - Death in Holy Orders.  It's quite good.   :)




I've also been reading George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings off and on for a year and a half.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. - Ludwig van Beethoven


MishaK

I'm almost done with Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Great fun!

MishaK

Quote from: Bogey on September 03, 2007, 05:25:43 PM


Hey! A fellow birder! I just got the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior and recently signed up with the Chicago Ornithological Society. Where do you live?

Bogey

Quote from: O Mensch on September 04, 2007, 02:07:11 PM
Hey! A fellow birder! I just got the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior and recently signed up with the Chicago Ornithological Society. Where do you live?

In the Denver area.  Only 70 or so birds on my life-list, but hope to add many more over the years.  We have around 10 feeders in our yard as I laso enjoy seeing how many species we can attract right in our yard.  I have checked out the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior from our local library....great incredible book and one I really need to own a copy of.  I am also beginning to listen to Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs (Western Region).  If I can get some of the songs memorized, I will be at a much greater advantage when going birding.  My 9 year old son also enjoys birding and nails some before I even have my binoculars up to my eyes. 

FWIW, my son is a member of the Audobon Society of Greater Denver.  He received his membership as a gift from some friends of ours.  He just got his first newsletter the other day.  I will follow this post up with a PM when I get the chance.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz