What are you currently reading?

[Mookalafalas]

I was interested in Mommsen from my childhood, when I read some volumes devoted to Rome by Carl Grimberg. I started full of expectations, but maybe it wasn't the right moment to me.

I recently enjoyed very much the "History of Rome" by the journalist Indro Montanelli. A collection of essays more than a conventional "history", it's an extremely interesting¡g and fresh book. 

  I'm just starting the Rome volume of Durant's "Story of Civilization".  I read a one volume "Rise and Fall" about 20 years ago, and later bought the full 3 volume in a gorgeous set, but haven't even cracked it    

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

  I'm just starting the Rome volume of Durant's "Story of Civilization".  I read a one volume "Rise and Fall" about 20 years ago, and later bought the full 3 volume in a gorgeous set, but haven't even cracked it

I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)  I've read many of them and am always impressed at Durant's accomplishment.  Be aware, however, that specialists (aka envious bastards) find fault with him all over the place.

[Karl Henning]

I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)

I need all the civilization I can get!

[Mookalafalas]

I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)  I've read many of them and am always impressed at Durant's accomplishment.  Be aware, however, that specialists (aka envious bastards) find fault with him all over the place.

I'm afraid I wasn't clear. Yes, the Durant is 11 volumes. I've read 6 (well, most of 6).  The 1 and 3 volume sets I was referring to are of Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". I made a hash of it by incorrectly referring to it as "The Rise and Fall".

    And yeah, I know academics love to beat up on Durant.  Of course he made mistakes and some sloppy generalizations. He was, after all, just an "amateur historian". However, unlike 97.89% of academics, he knew how to write clearly, succinctly, and with style. Perhaps that is the real reason they can't forgive him  
   

[Karl Henning]

However, unlike 97.89% of academics, he knew how to write clearly, succinctly, and with style. Perhaps that is the real reason they can't forgive him  

I like that 

[Ken B]

That one was a page turner for me. 

For me a page turner was the Book of Luke. I wanted to know how it ends.


With apologies to Oscar Wilde

[Wakefield]

I'm curious, dear GMGers.

If you had to choose the book of fiction that impact you the most (1) in your childhood, and (2) as a teenager: what would those works be?

Mine are:

1) As a child (around 9 or 10 y.o.): The Duel (Joseph Conrad) and The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

2) As a teenager (around 16 y.o.): Demian by Hermann Hess.

[NikF]

I'm curious, dear GMGers.

If you had to choose the book of fiction that impact you the most (1) in your childhood, and (2) as a teenager: what would those works be?

Mine are:

1) As a child (around 9 or 10 y.o.): The Duel (Joseph Conrad) and The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

2) As a teenager (around 16 y.o.): Demian by Hermann Hess.

That's a good question. For me -

1) Watership Down by Richard Adams.

2) Black Spring by Henry Miller.

[kishnevi]

For me
1) My mother made sure I read heavily as a child, with the result that no book stands out in my mind above the rest.  As a preteen, I remember two books by Thomas Costain, The Silver Chalice and The Tontine, Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko, and The Roman by Mika Waltari (although Wikipedia's description of the latter does not match my faint memories of the story).  These all happened to be books my mother owned.
2)As a high school student,  The Lord of the Rings and Will Durant's Story of Philosophy
And to add one more level
3)In college,  Jane Austen and  Homer in Lattimore's translation, and Ariosto.

[Gurn Blanston]

I'm curious, dear GMGers.

If you had to choose the book of fiction that impact you the most (1) in your childhood, and (2) as a teenager: what would those works be?

Mine are:

1) As a child (around 9 or 10 y.o.): The Duel (Joseph Conrad) and The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

2) As a teenager (around 16 y.o.): Demian by Hermann Hess.

This is one of those questions which illuminates the adult with the light of his childhood. At first blush, I don't suppose mine choices are credible, but upon reflection they are me as an adult:

When I was 7, my parents bought me a set of encyclopedias. Knowing no better, I read them (all 18 volumes) from cover to cover as though they were a large novel. Several times.

When I was a freshman in high school, I was browsing the school library and diacovered a very old set of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, and I so admired the way Doyle drew out Holmes' linear and analytic thought processes that I made an effort to pattern my own after them. Whether I was successful or not is open for debate. However, I have become, as an adult, a very linear and analytic thinker, so either I already was or else the self-training worked to some extent. 

[North Star]

Early childhood & teenage: Rowling's Potter series
Teenage: Tolkien
Very late teens: Camus' Plague, The Stranger, The Fall

[Ken B]

Hmmm.
About 10, And then there were none by Agatha Christie
About 16. Harder to say. Probably The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. That or Anna Karenina.

[Ken B]

For me
1) My mother made sure I read heavily as a child, with the result that no book stands out in my mind above the rest.  As a preteen, I remember two books by Thomas Costain, The Silver Chalice and The Tontine, Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko, and The Roman by Mika Waltari (although Wikipedia's description of the latter does not match my faint memories of the story).  These all happened to be books my mother owned.
2)As a high school student,  The Lord of the Rings and Will Durant's Story of Philosophy
And to add one more level
3)In college,  Jane Austen and  Homer in Lattimore's translation, and Ariosto.

Costain is from my home town.

I may be one of the few here who failed to finish TLOTR.

[Karl Henning]

Costain is from my home town.

I may be one of the few here who failed to finish TLOTR.

There are a couple of chapters which even I find it a chore to make my way through . . . .

[Ken B]

There are a couple of chapters which even I find it a chore to make my way through . . . .

I remember giving up on the word Lo! somewhere deep in an orc battle.

[kishnevi]

I remember giving up on the word Lo! somewhere deep in an orc battle.

If it was the final battle before the Black Gate...I fully understand why.  That LO! is the low point of the book.  JRR was bad at battle scenes.  And you can not skip it, since that is the chapter which describes Sauron's fall.

[Karl Henning]

Men of the West! Who brought the Captain Morgan?

[Ken B]

If it was the final battle before the Black Gate...I fully understand why.  That LO! is the low point of the book.  JRR was bad at battle scenes.  And you can not skip it, since that is the chapter which describes Sauron's fall.

I believe it was. It was deep in third volume.

[Drasko]

I'm curious, dear GMGers.

If you had to choose the book of fiction that impact you the most (1) in your childhood, and (2) as a teenager: what would those works be?

Mine are:

1) As a child (around 9 or 10 y.o.): The Duel (Joseph Conrad) and The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

2) As a teenager (around 16 y.o.): Demian by Hermann Hess.

1) A novel by Yugoslavian writer Branko Ćopić titled Magareće godine (Donkey Years) dealing with adventures and pains of growing up of bunch of boys at a boarding school. Wonderfully warm and funny. Of wider known titles definitely Stevenson's Treasure Island and Salgari's The Black Corsair.

2) Probably Hesse for me as well: Der Steppenwolf. Also, around that time, but I'm not quite sure if I was still in my teens, I first read Borges' Ficciones. That was huge, completely changed my perception of art.

[NikF]

If I go back to before nine or ten I can recall reading 'Hurrah for the Circus' by Enid Blyton. It made me want to run away and join the circus. And frankly, sometimes I still do.