What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

I'm reading the power of branding with Hidden Lakes Estates . . . .

[Karl Henning]

I have at last begun to read Melville's The Confidence-Man . . . I do not really expect that there is any similarity, but renewed awareness of this classic has hovered in the back of my mind while I have been reading of the adventures of one John Graustein as he wrestles the cheerful chaos with which a certain Anselm barrages his beige world.

[ritter]

These past days:

[asin]0804744009[/asin]
A highly entertaining, well written and thoroughy researched biography of a character who, despite being to a certain extent a historical oddity, is quite fascinating. Simultaneously, the author guides us by the hand in an exploration of Brazilian history during most of the 19th century.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Before moving on to Wanderjahre, I think I should comment about Lehrjahre after all, my impressions. While the book has many merits (being one of the first, if not the first Bildungsroman, having great character development and psychology is often masterful), I still found the book pretty hard to read. It doesn't help I have very old finnish translation of the book. I consider even books like The Brothers Karamazov often easy to read, but this book, with this book I had to exert my brains and be just in the right state of mind to enjoy most pages of it. This is more my fault than the author's but I think it is possible for book to be both cleverly written and still easily understandable. This book certainly was cleverly written and it certainly wasn't always easily understandable. I think the book would have been a bit more balanced if it would have had more easy-going passages like when Wilhelm and co. are staying at Count's place. I have no problem with having to use your brain, with this book it was just a bit too much for comfort. Criticism can also be directed towards convenient (and at times inconvenient) coincidences that the book has. You think Dickens uses lot of coincidences? Read Lehrjahre!

Btw, I adore Jarno's character. Easily the greatest character in the book. I already know he returns in Wanderjahre, although under different alias. Can't wait.

[jlaurson]

The Master and Margarita

in a new German translation that's supposed to be the bee's knees. It's certainly notably more modern and witty but also a bit self-importantly "excellent".

A Dance to the Music of Time - A Buyer's Market

I'm not as enthused as Wodehouse was... but I decided I'll read the whole shabang!

[aligreto]

Revisiting Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence....





I enjoy reading DH Lawrence in general but there is one irritation which constantly recurs and that is his penchant for repetition of a thought or an idea, frequently in close proximity to each other. It is as though he was saying "what a clever idea this is!"

[Karl Henning]

Reading a short biography of Washington Irving.

[Ken B]

.[asin]0671604295[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

China In Ten Words - Yu Hua

[Bogey]

.[asin]0671604295[/asin]

How is this one, Ken?

[Ken B]

How is this one, Ken?

It's very interesting. I read it in high school, before I had seen most of the movies. There are often really insightful things about filmmaking but the best book on movies remains The Genius of the System.

[Bogey]

It's very interesting. I read it in high school, before I had seen most of the movies. There are often really insightful things about filmmaking but the best book on movies remains The Genius of the System.

Just ordered Genius of the System.  Thanks, Ken!

[kishnevi]

Decided to beef up my holdings of Greek poetry

With the companion volumes for Sophocles II, Aeschylus I and II
I have the full run of Euripides in this series since college.  These are updated or new translations of the Grene/Lattimore originals.
Sophocles and Aeschylus I have already in other translations.  Next up will be Aristophanes, to keep company with the Hadas translation I also have had for years.
Also



Apollonius and the Hymns are new.  The lyric poems I have in (again)Lattimore's translation.  (I also have his Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar.)

[Ken B]

Decided to beef up my holdings of Greek poetry

With the companion volumes for Sophocles II, Aeschylus I and II
I have the full run of Euripides in this series since college.  These are updated or new translations of the Grene/Lattimore originals.
Sophocles and Aeschylus I have already in other translations.  Next up will be Aristophanes, to keep company with the Hadas translation I also have had for years.
Also



Apollonius and the Hymns are new.  The lyric poems I have in (again)Lattimore's translation.  (I also have his Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar.)

That Argonautika is sitting in my pile, glowering at me. Unread for many years now. As is the Fagles Homer.
Can't say I could ever abide Lattimore in anything. Fitzgerald or Lombardo are more to my liking.

[kishnevi]

That Argonautika is sitting in my pile, glowering at me. Unread for many years now. As is the Fagles Homer.
Can't say I could ever abide Lattimore in anything. Fitzgerald or Lombardo are more to my liking.

At least read the introduction Green wrote to the Argonautika.  He takes academic snark to a new level.

[Bogey]

While I am waiting for Genius of the System to land:



As an Amazon review put it: Wallace's "ruminations on various happenings in Tinseltown's history".

[André]

Henning Mankell, Before the Frost. A mystery and crime novel author, Mankell's books have sold over 40 million copies. Left-wing social activist, widely involved in african issues (he lived in Mozambique for many years). He is the son-in-law of movie director Ingmar Bergman.

[Karl Henning]

It Took Us Just 38 Minutes To Buy An AR-15 In Orlando

Just two days after Omar Mateen used a semi-automatic rifle to murder 49 innocent people and injure dozens more, we were able to purchase an AR-15 — a rifle similar to Mateen's that has been used in several other mass shootings on American soil — in less time than it takes to buy a cart full of groceries.

We would have been locked and loaded within five minutes, but the gun shop employee we spoke to said the queue on background checks was longer than usual because people were scrambling to buy AR-15s in the wake of the shooting. That's both terrifying and unsurprising — gun sales often skyrocket after mass shootings.

[NikF]

I picked up these two volumes in the local used book shop. Sadly, I did not pick up Anouk Aimée at the same time.

[NikF]

Nabokov: Laughter in the Dark.

[asin]0141186526[/asin]