What are you currently reading?

[André]

Just received - and I got flak from my better half for clotting the postal bx with my stuff  ... Mesa Selimovic' Le Derviche et la Mort (Death and the Dervish). After I'm finished with Michael Connelly's The Last Coyote, that is. 

[aligreto]

Garrison Keillor: We Are Still Married....

[Drasko]

Mesa Selimovic' Le Derviche et la Mort (Death and the Dervish)

That's a wonderful novel. But why I keep thinking that you've read it already, ages ago when we were talking about Serbian/Yugoslavian literature (Selimovic, Andric, Pekic, Kis ...)

On topic: Chekhov's Platonov (re-reading).

[SimonNZ]

[NikF]

Garrison Keillor: We Are Still Married....

How did you get on with the John Fowles?


In other news -

The second part of the trilogy.

[aligreto]

How did you get on with the John Fowles?

I really enjoyed it I must say. I really liked the way that the narrative switched in the middle section to give "the other side of the story"; a clever technique.

[NikF]

I really enjoyed it I must say. I really liked the way that the narrative switched in the middle section to give "the other side of the story"; a clever technique.

Yeah, it's clever indeed and quite the contrast.

[aligreto]

Yeah, it's clever indeed and quite the contrast.

Have you read his "The Magus"?

[NikF]

Have you read his "The Magus"?

No, I haven't. Have you?
I've only read The Collector and The French Lieutenant's Woman.

[aligreto]

Yes I did, some years ago now but I am still left with a disturbing impression from it. It is like The Collector in that it has a strong psychologically disquieting element to it but in a different way.

[André]

That's a wonderful novel. But why I keep thinking that you've read it already, ages ago when we were talking about Serbian/Yugoslavian literature (Selimovic, Andric, Pekic, Kis ...)

On topic: Chekhov's Platonov (re-reading).

I DID read it about 5 years ago, but in an English translation, and it was borrowed from the library. Now it'is in mine, and it's in French, which will lend it a different reading angle (perspective). 

PS: I always re-read really exceptional books.  0:)

[Bogey]

My fourth Reacher novel.  Already just as fun as the past three.

[Drasko]

I DID read it about 5 years ago, but in an English translation, and it was borrowed from the library. Now it'is in mine, and it's in French, which will lend it a different reading angle (perspective). 

PS: I always re-read really exceptional books.  0:)

Oh good, I was fearing I had first signs of early onset of senility. I've read Selimovic in highschool, maybe I could give it another read one of these days, but on the other hand I've never read Fortress, his other big novel, should definitely get that.

[Drasko]

Million Dollar Game, the 60-something episode of Modesty Blaise is one of the first upon the return of Eric Badia Romero, my least favorite artist to draw Modesty, but unfortunately the one to draw the most. By this time the series became pretty routine, glory days of groundbreaking Jim Holdaway beginnings were long gone, so was the refreshing Neville Colvin run. Still one of my all-time favorite pop heroines.

Along with Trondheim's Lapinot, Sfar/Trondheim Donjon series (universe more precisely, with three parallel story lines and two off-shot series) is probably the best of what the current wave of authors of bande dessinée can offer. Apart from main writers Sfar and Trondheim it includes as artists many of the best known French comic authors: Larcenet, Blain, Kerascoët ...  I like it but time will tell can it stand along the classics as Gaston, Spirou et Fantasio, Asterix, Lucky Luke or Iznogoud.

[NikF]

Mann: The Magic Mountain.

[asin]0749386428[/asin]

A reread due to us having most of our stuff packed away.

[André]

One of the most important and enigmatic books written in the last century. Very much Mahler7ish. One of my top 10 books ever.

[Jo498]

I found "Der Zauberberg" somewhat enigmatic and struggled with several chapters when I first read it with about 19. When I re-read it with 27 or 28 I discovered it to be highly readable and often very funny. There are a few strange chapters (and many allusions) where it helps to have some commentary or background but overall this is not that necessary. That second reading is now again 16 or more years in the past...
(I seem to live on some magic mountain where time somehow passes too fast - I am now more than ten years older than Hans is when he leaves for the war - so I do not know how I would like it/rate it today. But it is a very great book (and, as I said, fairly readable, compared to e.g. Ulysses or similar stuff).

[André]

The humour in Mann's works comes at the least predictable moments. Whether in Die Buddenbrooks, where he mocks an accent in the funniest way, or in Zauberberg (some of the entretiens between Settembrini and "the Jew Naphta") or even - in many instances - in his mammoth saga Joseph und seine Brüder (most often in relationship with the mischievious Jakob). This is the sign a master storyteller.

[Jo498]

I never got into the Joseph books (read about half of one of them). The humor in "The magic mountain" is often very dark because (unlike Hans) many of the inhabitants are actually moribund. E.g. quite soon after Hans arrives he meets a group of people some of which can whistle in a way that only works (and demonstrates) their defective lungs. This is both hilarious and spine-chilling.

[Drasko]

Elias Canetti - Masse und Macht (Crowds and Power)