What are you currently reading?

[Ken B]

Interspersed amongst Proust and Bloom is Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil.

No Ken, no. Some jokes are just too easy. Let this one go.

[Florestan]

Novalis - Europe, or Christendom

Online here: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/13_Class.Romanticism_Doc.3_English.pdf

I was particularly impressed with this paragraph which, although written in 1799, looks almost like a commentary on some events which have recently disturbed the tranquil community of GMG...

By downright preference the common people were enlightened and educated to that cultivated enthusiasm, and in this way there arose a new European guild: the Lovers of Mankind and Enlighteners. What a pity that Nature remained so wondrous and incomprehensible, so poetic and infinite, in defiance of all the efforts to modernize her. If somewhere an old superstition about a higher world and the like turned up, a hue and cry was straightway raised on all sides and wherever possible the dangerous spark was quenched into ashes by "philosophy" and wit. And yet Tolerance was the watchword of the cultured, and particularly in France was reckoned synonymous with "philosophy."

[Henk]

Interesting.

[Mookalafalas]

When I reread Chandler I was pleasantly surprised how they held up. He's due for a third reading.

I just went back and read Lady in the Lake, Playback, and The High Window.  I'm sure I read Lady in the Lake and the High Window before, but I didn't remember anything from either, like they had been wiped from my memory. Unfortunately, I also just re-read the Thin Man, which uses the same plot-twist as Lady in the Lake, so I could see most of the story coming...still, it's a fun ride.  Just started "Trouble is My Business"--some Chandler short stories. 

[Philo]

Just completed Swann's Way (will have a write up in a few days). Still working my way through the Bloom (will also have a write up in a few days). Before I begin Book 2 of Proust, in this brief respite I'll be reading some of the works of Alexander Pope (thanks to Bloom's prompting).

[Ken B]

I'll be reading some of the works of Alexander Pope (thanks to Bloom's prompting).

True wit is nature to advantage dressed:
What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
-- Al Pope

I am reading several books at once as ever, but concentrating on Thank You, Jeeves and The Battle of Bretton Woods.

[Drasko]

Before I begin Book 2 of Proust ...

Book 2, Within a Budding Grove, is probably my favorite of the seven.

Next to last Spirou and Fantasio episode:

[Philo]

True wit is nature to advantage dressed:
What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
-- Al Pope

Pope is one of the first authors I've read where I feel I need to be wearing a monocle.

Book 2, Within a Budding Grove, is probably my favorite of the seven.

I'm very excited to begin the trek again. I'm hoping to have my thoughts wrapped up about Swann's Way by Sunday.

[Ken B]

Pope is one of the first authors I've read where I feel I need to be wearing a monocle.

I'm not sure I understand the comment but I found it oddly funny!
Pope is incredibly brilliant -- that couplet above is some sort of pinnacle in the English language -- and often funny but I find him too bloodless to read in large amounts. I'll take Milton or Donne or Blake.

[kishnevi]

I'm not sure I understand the comment but I found it oddly funny!
Pope is incredibly brilliant -- that couplet above is some sort of pinnacle in the English language -- and often funny but I find him too bloodless to read in large amounts. I'll take Milton or Donne or Blake.

I might call the Dunciad many things, including obscene and cruel, but not "bloodless".

[Philo]

Pope's just not for me. The rhyming was driving me batty. I will say that I did enjoy reading about him and definitely value his ends (just not his means).

[Ken B]

Pope's just not for me. The rhyming was driving me batty. I will say that I did enjoy reading about him and definitely value his ends (just not his means).

Milton.

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche contra Wagner by Friedrich Nietzsche.

[Henk]

Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche contra Wagner by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Curious about your opinion. Not the easiests texts by Nietzsche.

[Mookalafalas]

Not the easiest texts by Nietzsche.

Now that's saying something

Still on my hard-boiled binge. Reread Maltese Falcon today. First read it about 25 years ago. That is a gem.  Probably the best of all of them.  Tight controlled, and with terrific momentum.   I've seen the movie a million times, and it is a testament to the quality of Hammett's dialogue just how much of it made it into the film.  Houston really kept it close. 

[Ken B]

Now that's saying something

Still on my hard-boiled binge. Reread Maltese Falcon today. First read it about 25 years ago. That is a gem.  Probably the best of all of them.  Tight controlled, and with terrific momentum.   I've seen the movie a million times, and it is a testament to the quality of Hammett's dialogue just how much of it made it into the film.  Houston really kept it close.

Yep. Hammett never characterizes or explains, just describes. No "he said angrily" or inner monologue or what he thought, etc. One of the reasons why he films so well. And he trimmed and trimmed. No fat.

You'd like Eric Ambler, assuming you haven't read him already.

[Mookalafalas]

Yep. Hammett never characterizes or explains, just describes. No "he said angrily" or inner monologue or what he thought, etc. One of the reasons why he films so well. And he trimmed and trimmed. No fat.

You'd like Eric Ambler, assuming you haven't read him already.

I haven't, Ken. Thanks. I've been wishing there was somewhere new to turn to.

  For the last few years I've mainly been reading biographies and history (tons of presidential bios, preferably 3 or more volumes).  Then I sort of stopped reading.  It's nice to have my head back in a book

[Ken B]

I haven't, Ken. Thanks. I've been wishing there was somewhere new to turn to.

  For the last few years I've mainly been reading biographies and history (tons of presidential bios, preferably 3 or more volumes).  Then I sort of stopped reading.  It's nice to have my head back in a book

I like Dimitrios best. Several variant titles all the same book. Lots of splendid books though.

[Lisztianwagner]

Curious about your opinion. Not the easiests texts by Nietzsche.

I'll write it after finishing. I think there aren't easy texts by Nietzsche; when you deal with his books, you need to have carefully read comments and introductions and know the matter well to understand what Nietzsche is talking about.

[Ken B]

Hey Al

If you ate looking specifically for private eye books
Ross Macdonald -- anything from the 60s. I like The Chill especially. Earlier books are different.
James Crumley -- his early three books from the 70s, eg The Last Good Kiss
These are great.

And for something a bit odd, Paul Auster's NY trilogy