What are you currently reading?

[stingo]

Finished Ulysses by James Joyce. Continuing with Cooked by Michael Pollan and started The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

[Corey]

[Ken B]

Actually I am rereading The Red Box by Rex Stout. The cover is just Al-bait.

[Mookalafalas]

Actually I am rereading The Red Box by Rex Stout. The cover is just Al-bait.

  Actually, Ken, that book looks very interesting.  My undergrad and MA are in film studies.  From a cultural studies perspective, Roger Corman is a much more important figure in film studies than, say, Orson Welles or Fellini... I can read the book and not have to bother with the actual films

By the way, I'm on book 9 of the Zelazney series.  This is Chinese New Year's vacation (yes, I'm serious) and I have some nice down time.

[Ken B]

  Actually, Ken, that book looks very interesting.  My undergrad and MA are in film studies. 

I knew that. I'm more cunning than I seem. I know good Al-bait when I see it. 

Dragon-bait



Recommended too.

[Moonfish]

  Actually, Ken, that book looks very interesting.  My undergrad and MA are in film studies.  From a cultural studies perspective, Roger Corman is a much more important figure in film studies than, say, Orson Welles or Fellini... I can read the book and not have to bother with the actual films

By the way, I'm on book 9 of the Zelazney series.  This is Chinese New Year's vacation (yes, I'm serious) and I have some nice down time.

If I recall correctly the quality of the Amber books deteriorated quite a bit towards the end of the series. Do you agree, Al?

[Mookalafalas]

If I recall correctly the quality of the Amber books deteriorated quite a bit towards the end of the series. Do you agree, Al?

  I'm still not at the end.  The last section has a new protagonist who's far less of a he-man, and the story is less exciting with fewer surprising revelations.  However, it still reads like a comic book for grown-ups and is, for me at least, fun and enjoyable. I can't put it down even though it is not suspenseful.  There was about a 20 page section that was an extended acid trip in an alternative reality with a bunch of Alice in Wonderland characters.  That got tedious and I ended up skimming through most of it.  The author was born in 1937 and wrote it in the late 1970s, I think, and you can kind of see him coming to terms with the era and exercising his inner youthful hippy.   I like long books over short books, always, and as I like this series' diegetic world and characters very much my only real complaint is that the author died before writing more.

[Ken B]

  I'm still not at the end.  The last section has a new protagonist who's far less of a he-man, and the story is less exciting with fewer surprising revelations.  However, it still reads like a comic book for grown-ups and is, for me at least, fun and enjoyable. I can't put it down even though it is not suspenseful.  There was about a 20 page section that was an extended acid trip in an alternative reality with a bunch of Alice in Wonderland characters.  That got tedious and I ended up skimming through most of it.  The author was born in 1937 and wrote it in the late 1970s, I think, and you can kind of see him coming to terms with the era and exercising his inner youthful hippy.   I like long books over short books, always, and as I like this series' diegetic world and characters very much my only real complaint is that the author died before writing more.

Inner hippie is a complaint. Or should be.

[Mookalafalas]

Inner hippie is a complaint. Or should be.

   I just meant he was into his time period.  He's actually rather cynical and ironic--the books are full of intrigue and a host of cagey characters.  It actually reads kind of like Raymond Chandler on acid.  Zelazney had an MA in Elizabethan poetry and worked in Civil Service.  If you have a kindle, I'd like to send you the first book. I think you might like it--you'd know in about 5 pages.

[ritter]

Arrived a couple of days ago from the US:

[asin]1421413450[/asin]

The book has chapters on Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel de Yturri, José-Maria de Heredia and Ramón Frenandez, plus shorter sections on tangential issues. An interesting and pleasant read, although at times I get the impression that Mr. Gallo is prone to overinterpretation...

[Drasko]

Also, in a strike of luck managed today to pick up a copy of Huysmans À Rebours in Serbian translation from a street seller for equivalent of one euro. Been looking for it for some time since it is out of print and asking price for used copies is generally much bigger.

[Ken B]

Martial, Epigrams

I could have managed without your embrace,
darling Chloë, and without your face,
and without your breasts and hair and hands,
your neck, your legs, your eyes, your shoulders and – it's too long to pass each part in review –
I could have managed without all of you.

[toledobass]

Puntarella salad

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Robert schumann biography by John Worthen. I laughed at the way Schumann describes his hangovers, such as "afternoon hangover", "wonderful hangover" and the real gem: " an iron hammer in the head".

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it. And he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased. Almost as bad as permanently disfiguring a student for snitching DA out or almost killing a student for trying to take points from them or using spells into students without provocation or because they asked too many questions.

Thinking of reading some Cervantes as well.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Reading Hunchback by Hugo. Still extremely well-written novel.

[Mookalafalas]

My little dip into fantasy with the Amber books was so pleasant I picked up a book I hadn't read by the only other fantasy writer I like.  I don't know if Ambercrombie's stuff is really considered fantasy.  Mythical middle ages type setting, but with all the brutality, ignorance, suffering and lawlessness left in.  The main characters are generally terrible people, but some are making some feeble attempts to be less so.  Also plenty violent and strangely fun.  This is not as good as his earlier books, IMO, but I still sat up half the night finishing it.

[North Star]

Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it.

Don't worry, later on you will find out that Dumbledore did some other vile stuff, too. Whether or not his actions during Harry's life are justified by what would happen if Voldy would have absolute power, you'll have to judge for yourself, I guess.
(and Slytherins had won the cup for a few years in a row, mostly thanks to Snape. . .)

And he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased.

Now there's a paradox. And wrong in any case, they all deserved points for what each got them for, as surely as they deserved to have some taken away for some of the things they did.

[Bogey]

Reading Hunchback by Hugo. Still extremely well-written novel.

Love that illustration.  What is the source?

[North Star]

Love that illustration.  What is the source?

Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg