What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

I have not read any of them . . . I am, however, fixin' to watch Return to Oz for the first time this weekend.

[Bogey]

Dear gawd. All of them?
My son loved them when he was very young, so we tag-teamed through about four of them. Then we decided an illiterate child isn't so bad after all.

Stellar stuff, Ken.  The first four or five of them multiple times.

[bob_cart]

One to learn something:

and one fantasy/steampunkish for relaxing:

[Karl Henning]

Again:

[asin]0989406520[/asin]

Will he really believe that she is a Theatre major? . . .

[Cato]

Again:

[asin]0989406520[/asin]

Will he really believe that she is a Theatre major? . . .

Hmmm... 

[North Star]

Ordered this lot as I had a 10% off discount coupon at an online bookstore. I did have a copy of Of Mice And Men but it vanished before I had the chance to read it. 

 
 

[Ken B]

Ordered this lot as I had a 10% off discount coupon at an online bookstore. I did have a copy of Of Mice And Men but it vanished before I had the chance to read it. 

 
 

Good stuff. I recommend Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid most strongly.
I have the Fagles Odyssey yet to read; it sits on my table and lowers at me. (I have read two other translations.)
I read the old Humphries Metamorphoses, but the Mandelbaum is much better. I have also dipped into the Lombardo, which I like, on the strength of his Iliad. Fast and brutal! 
I have only read The Aeneid once (Fitzgerald), but I also read about half the Dryden. It has some lovely bits in it. About a cape named for a dead member of the party:
"Thy name -- 'tis all a ghost can have -- remains."

[North Star]

Good stuff. I recommend Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid most strongly.

Cheers, it looks nice.

Yet there drips in sleep before my heart
  a griefremembering pain.
Good sense comes the hard way.
  And the grace of the gods
   (I’m pretty sure)
 is a grace that comes by violence.

I have the Fagles Odyssey yet to read; it sits on my table and lowers at me. (I have read two other translations.)
I read the old Humphries Metamorphoses, but the Mandelbaum is much better. I have also dipped into the Lombardo, which I like, on the strength of his Iliad. Fast and brutal! 
I have only read The Aeneid once (Fitzgerald), but I also read about half the Dryden. It has some lovely bits in it. About a cape named for a dead member of the party:
"Thy name -- 'tis all a ghost can have -- remains."[/quote]


Here's the opening of Fagles' Aeneid

Wars and a man I sing — an exile driven on
by Fate,
he was the first to flee the coast of Troy,
destined to reach Lavinian shores and
Italian soil,
yet many blows he took on land and sea
from the gods above. ...

[Ken B]

Cheers, it looks nice.


I have the Fagles Odyssey yet to read; it sits on my table and lowers at me. (I have read two other translations.)
I read the old Humphries Metamorphoses, but the Mandelbaum is much better. I have also dipped into the Lombardo, which I like, on the strength of his Iliad. Fast and brutal! 
I have only read The Aeneid once (Fitzgerald), but I also read about half the Dryden. It has some lovely bits in it. About a cape named for a dead member of the party:
"Thy name -- 'tis all a ghost can have -- remains."


Here's the opening of Fagles' Aeneid

I loved Milton when I read him. I doubt I'd get through PL again, but it made a hell of an impression on me way back when. The only two English poets who I could recite more than tiny amounts of were Milton and Blake. Donne, Milton, Blake are my favorite English poets.

[Jo498]

I did "Of mice and men" in school about 25 years ago. Later I read Cannery Row which is quite funny and Grapes of Wrath which is rather depressing. Have not got around to East of Eden, although it's included in the doorstopper that also has Grapes of Wrath.

I am not sure I ever read a translation of the Aeneid complete (although I should have done this in school when we translated some bits of it and maybe I did, I don't remember). Same for the Metamorphoses. My Latin is now way too rusty for this kind of stuff (I can read not too elaborate prose with a dictionary, but poetry is usually too hard) but I probably should get a bilingual edition at some stage and re-read them.

I am reading lighter fantasy stuff now: "Half a King" by J. Abercrombie, going to be a nice quick read. And I got another doorstopper on the Kindle: Struggle for Rome (Ein Kampf um Rom) but I am not sure If I'll get through this one. I saw the movie as a kid in the 80s. Lots of intrigues and monumental battles between Goths, Romans and Byzantines in the 6th century...

[North Star]

I loved Milton when I read him. I doubt I'd get through PL again, but it made a hell of an impression on me way back when. The only two English poets who I could recite more than tiny amounts of were Milton and Blake. Donne, Milton, Blake are my favorite English poets.

That is some heavyweight group, for sure! Have you read all the big Blake works? (I certainly haven't yet).
Shakespeare (sonnets & other poems), Milton, Donne, Traherne, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth,  Keats, Yeats and Auden are my favourites, but I haven't read enough of any of them, let alone others.

[Brian]

Just finished The Three Musketeers. That was fun! Are the sequels as entertaining?

[Ken B]

Just finished The Three Musketeers. That was fun! Are the sequels as entertaining?

No, but Iron Mask is well worth reading.

Monte Cristo beckons too. I read an abridgement  but am tempted to read the whole thing. Don't read the first few pages! They are incredibly appealling ... 

[Ken B]

That is some heavyweight group, for sure! Have you read all the big Blake works? (I certainly haven't yet).
Shakespeare (sonnets & other poems), Milton, Donne, Traherne, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth,  Keats, Yeats and Auden are my favourites, but I haven't read enough of any of them, let alone others.

Not all. Read a lot, long ago. The odd thing is I loathe mysticism, but like Blake! I did read most of Milton, aside from Regained.

Don't forget De Rerum Natura; it's my favourite Roman book, even over Plautus, and certainly over Virgil.

[North Star]

Not all. Read a lot, long ago. The odd thing is I loathe mysticism, but like Blake! I did read most of Milton, aside from Regained.

Yeah, good writing is often just that, regardless of values and ideas of the writer - and Blake's 'Satanic Mills' certainly contain more than just mysticism.

Don't forget De Rerum Natura; it's my favourite Roman book, even over Plautus, and certainly over Virgil.

Thanks, I'll certainly put it on the list.

[North Star]

And of course Bookdepository sends a soon-to-expire 10 % off coupon just after I bought the previous lot . .

[Brian]

No, but Iron Mask is well worth reading.

Monte Cristo beckons too. I read an abridgement  but am tempted to read the whole thing. Don't read the first few pages! They are incredibly appealling ... 

I read Monte Cristo last year. There are parts that lag, but if your abridgment did not contain the lesbian affair escape sequence, you're missing out for sure.

[North Star]

I read Monte Cristo last year. There are parts that lag, but if your abridgment did not contain the lesbian affair escape sequence, you're missing out for sure.

Damn! I read an abridged Finnish translation in elementary school, and a lesbian affair escape sequence would surely have enriched the experience. 

[Henk]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Coincidentally, I started rereading Monte Cristo about a week ago. Non-abridged, by Jalmari Finne.